Megaman ZX: Return to Zero
by RiceKrispie
Summary: Post-ZXA. Using the power of the biometals, Zero returns to the world of the living to defeat an old foe thought to be buried and forgotten. But what is it, and why has it returned? Rated T for moderately mature themes and fight scenes.
1. Part 1: Death

Part 1: Death

The monstrous orbital cannon Ragnarok blew apart, scattering millions of pieces of debris through space. The fragments were quickly caught in the Earth's gravitational pull and dragged into the atmosphere. To those looking up into the sky from below they looked like comets streaking through the heavens as they burned up harmlessly. The smaller fragments disintegrated quickly, while some of the largest pieces managed to survive the descent and crash to Earth, creating massive craters filled with mechanical wreckage. Later generations would investigate these areas and rediscover lost technologies that would alter the course of civilization.

One of the largest pieces of debris was the remains of the Ragnarok Core, the site of the climatic final battle between the mad Dr. Weil and the red reploid Zero. After one final mighty blow shattered Weil's - Ragnarok's - core, there was nothing left of the once-human doctor. The core broke into millions of pieces as the uncontrollable energy of Ragnarok coursed through Weil's broken body, which was by then fully merged with the massive space station.

Although not instantly vaporized as he he'd expected to be, Zero's body sustained an unrecoverable amount damage from the blast. At some point his left arm had been torn off at the shoulder, and although his right was still attached it refused to respond to any of his attempts to move it. Shrapnel from the exploding core had ripped thousands of tiny holes through his entire body, making him resemble a piece of swiss cheese. Internal fluids resembling blood leaked from his body all over the floor, taking what little life was left to him with it. Somehow his legs had remained attached, though they were bent in a number of different locations, none of which were places they were supposed to bend. If he'd had any feeling left in them, he was sure it would have been quite painful.

His chest had been ripped open, sparks flying into the air from his fatally wounded power core. In only a few moments the residual energy left in him would sputter out, taking with it the remaining spark of life left in his battered body.

Indeed, there was a small piece of life left in the ruined form of Zero. However, he made no valiant attempt to cling to life; he knew it was time for his story to end. A new age was about to begin on the Earth below, an age of reploids and humans living together in peace. An age of peace had no need for warriors like him, born and forged in the flames of war. Ever since Ciel had awakened him from his century-long slumber he had done nothing but fight his way from one conflict to the next, trusting in X and Ciel to guide him into doing the right thing. He had believed in Ciel and the world she imagined, and fought with all his strength to make that place become a reality. He wasn't capable of doing anything else. In the end, he had sacrificed everything he had to allow Ciel's dream of a united world to come true. He only hoped that it would be enough.

_Ciel...create the world that X and I never could. You are the one who can bridge the gap between human and reploid and bring peace to the world we all love so much. I succeeded because you believed in me. Now you will succeed because I believe in you._

A smile spread across his face as he leaned his head back, waiting numbly for the end. "I guess it's true," he remarked to himself, "life really is more painful than death."

"Death is not the end of life, Zero," a familiar voice said. Zero couldn't move his head to look around, but moments later he saw the glowing form of X float into his field of view. "It is simply the end of one form of it."

If his neck rotors were working, Zero would have shaken his head. "X, I never really understood half of the things you ever said. All I know is, this is the end of the line for me."

"Your body, yes," X replied, "but not your soul, your spirit. It's not that body that defines you, it's your heart and soul that are important. I thought you would have learned that by now, especially after your encounter with Omega."

"I always was a slow learner."

He heard the light-form of X make a sound that resembled a chuckle. "Even when staring death in the face you can still crack a joke. Yes, Zero, this is the end for you. But every end brings the opportunity for a new beginning." The light that enveloped X's light-form extended toward Zero, spreading warmth across his chest; which was odd, since Zero's heat receptors had long since stopped functioning. Then he felt a tug on...something. He couldn't explain what; it was the oddest sensation.

"Come with me and I'll show you," X encouraged his friend. "I'll show you the beginning of your next journey."

"Sounds...exciting..." Zero whispered as life finally left his broken body. As he exhaled his final breath, the warm light emanating from X's light-form filled him, drawing something out from within. Slowly at first, but quickly increasing, a soft light seemed to pour out from the still figure of Zero, coalescing into a small, bright red ball in the air. After a few moments the flow of light stopped, forming a sphere roughly the same size as X. Shortly after the process was over, the red globe of light spoke.

"That was...interesting," Zero's voice said.

"You just died and became a cyber-elf, Zero," X responded dryly. "'Interesting' is hardly how I'd describe the process. Now, come with me." The blue sphere that was X's soul floated off, heading for the world below.

"Where are we going?" Zero inquired of his friend as he followed after.

"Someplace you've been before...sort of," X replied. "A place where all reploid souls go after their bodies crumble to dust. You met Phantom last time you were there."

"Cyberspace?" Zero said incredulously. "You're telling me _that_ is Reploid heaven?"

"Heh," X chuckled again. "'Cyberspace' is just the name given to the limited experience you had with 'it'. Physical bodies simply can't comprehend everything that 'it' is."

"Well then, does 'it' have a name?"

"It has no real need of one," X responded. "All who enter 'it' know what 'it' is." His friend's voice became thoughtful. "However, when the need for things such as names arises, I prefer to think of it as 'Eden'. Like I said, it is the place from which all reploid souls are born, as well the place they all return to when they die."

"And this is where we're going now?" X nodded. Zero sighed, which puzzled him: how did he sigh without lungs? Not wanted to think about the details, he quickly dismissed the matter from his mind. Being a cyber-elf would take some getting used to.

His gaze fell to the earth below, saved from the wrath of the mad Dr. Weil by his sacrifice. "I just wish I could have said goodbye," he said, a tinge of regret in his voice. He knew Ciel was down there, waiting for him to return from the mission as he always had. He owed her so much for all the things she'd taught him since his reawakening, yet he'd never told her how much she meant to him.

"You don't have to say goodbye," X said, suddenly pensive, "because you'll never leave her. Even after you pass on from this world, part of you will remain with Ciel for as long as she lives. You believed in her and her dream for a world of peace and coexistence. You gave her the confidence to pursue that dream of a united world, free from discrimination and war, and to accomplish what no other person in the history of mankind has been able to do. It's because you were with her that she can now do these things, and it's because you will never leave her that she will succeed; because she believes in you too, in the future you fought to create.

"So don't say goodbye, Zero," he finished gently. "There's no reason to."

Zero took a moment to absorb what his friend was saying, then smiled. "You always were right about these things," he said.

X's light body glowed good-naturedly. "You know, there's someone waiting for you in Eden," he said.

Zero was puzzled. "Waiting?" Who would be waiting for him?

Seeing his friend's confusion, X's orb of light blinked in amusement. "Something you're going to learn about being in Eden is that time has very little meaning," he explained. "Time is simply another form of data that is, once you're no longer alive, irrelevant. Still," his tone turned mischievous, "you've been gone for so long that she's getting a little impatient."

"She?" Zero was still confused - he still hadn't regained most of his memories from the time before Ciel woke him from his slumber in the underground lab, so he had no idea what his friend could be talking about. "I don't remember..."

"You will," X assured his friend. "Once we reach Eden, you'll understand everything."

Zero shrugged. "If you say so," he said to his friend, following him ever downward toward the Earth. Behind them the remains of his Ragnarok continued to burn, taking the remains of Zero's body with it, leaving no trace of the legend behind.

Though he had no idea where they were going, Zero placed his trust in his friend to show him the way, as he always had.

* * *

Author's Note

Don't you love stories that start with the death of the main character? Don't worry, like X said, all endings are simply new beginnings in disguise.

With this fic I'm hoping to write my own conclusion to the ZX storyline while keeping as close to canon as possible (because let's face it, some things in the game(s) just don't make any sense whatsoever -_-). However, I'll still be injecting a healthy dose of my own creativity to make things more fun and interesting, for both you *and* me. Hope you enjoy!

I know it's kind of short for a first part. Sorry! The first few parts are all this short, but then they suddenly get very large. It's just the way the story flow worked out. I might post some of them two at a time in order to make up for the brevity.

In case it isn't obvious, since this is my way of concluding the series, there are obviously numerous plot spoilers generously strewn about. I'm assuming that if you read this, you've played at least ZX and ZXA - it doesn't really matter which characters, though Vent/Ashe would be the most relevant combination...I think. Heh. You'll see ;).

I'd like to point out now that I *am* going to spoil the events of the hidden ending after you beat ZXA on Expert mode in later parts. If you've never seen the ending, don't worry - that actually makes this story even better, since you're less likely to figure out what's going on before I want you to :). You have been forewarned!

'Til next time!


	2. Part 2: Return

Okay, right after posting that last part I decided I didn't like where it ended in terms of being interesting. So despite it being 5am, I went and finished up this part as well. Thus I fulfill my promise of occasionally uploading two parts, if they're both really short.

Warning: Prepare for fluffy goodness!

* * *

Part 2: Return

It was rapture.

The consciousness that referred to itself as Zero floated, unable to fully comprehend the place that X had referred to as Eden. It was impossible to describe using mere words and language, for it existed outside the realm of such worldly notions. Time flowed by, though the thing that was Zero had no recollection of it. Time was simply a force, something which existed only in reality as a means of separating one instant from the next. In Eden such distinctions were meaningless: what did it matter when something happened if you had all of eternity in which to experience it? Space, too, was a useless concept, as everything in Eden was simply a smaller part of a whole; it was sometimes difficult to discern where one "thing" ended and another began. In the end it didn't really matter, either.

The consciousness called Zero felt an immense feeling of completeness as everything around it was filled with a bright white light, radiating what could only be inadequately describe as a warm, loving feeling. Everything in this place seemed...right. As if everything was, and always would be, as it belonged.

Another soul approached him and instantly he recognized it; indeed, it seemed impossible that he had ever forgotten it. Joy and happiness exuded from this new soul as its light mingled with his, its feelings a mirror of his own. Together, they were completed in a way that no living being could ever hope to comprehend.

Who exactly this soul was, it was difficult say. It had taken many forms over the centuries. Though they did not always come together in their physical manifestations, both knew that the other would wait for them in the realm beyond that of reality. Any amount of time they spent apart was as nothing to the eternity they would have together within the boundaries of Eden.

Fully aware of who he was, and who he had been, the consciousness that had most recently been called Zero entwined with that of its mate, losing itself in a blissful happiness that it had not experienced in over two hundred years, but only now realized how badly it had longed for it.

* * *

Something tugged at him. He was unable to respond at first, having been so long since he'd had to discern himself from that of his partner. He couldn't have said exactly how long it had been, as time had quickly lost all meaning to him as he simply existed, entwined with his beloved in this paradise. After exerting a significant amount of effort, the soul that referred to itself as Zero pulled itself together long enough to form a thought, which it sent at the offending thing.

_What do you want?_

Another tug, harder this time. A feeling of urgency washed over him; he had finally returned to where he belonged, with his soul mate - he couldn't leave now. He thought as much to the thing that was pulling at him, embracing his partner again.

_You are needed in the world of the living,_ the thing said to him. This time he recognized it; it was another soul, this one very familiar to him. It had most recently inhabited the body known as X.

_I don't want to go,_ the thing that was Zero replied. _My place is here now, with..._

_Go, my love,_ his partner thought to him, along with feelings of love and happiness. _Our time apart is fleeting compared to the eternity that awaits. The world has need of you. Go to it. Protect the world you helped to create. Care for it as you care for me._

He thought about this for only a moment - or maybe it was an eternity; it was hard to tell in this place - before he felt another tug on his soul. This time he did not resist, allowing it to pull him away from his beloved. He felt as though he had been ripped in two, wounded and incomplete.

_I will return,_ he said to her.

_I know,_ she responded, her voice filled with happiness and devotion. _I will be here. Now go, do your duty. Make me proud to call you mine, and know that my heart belongs to you, now and forever._

Those were the last thoughts he felt enter his consciousness before all of existence shattered around him.

* * *

The first thing he noticed was the colors. It had been a very long time since Zero had truly seen anything, and the sudden rush of reds, greens, and blues dazed him for a moment.

The second thing he noticed was that he was alive...sort of. He was once again a glowing red orb, floating in what he had come to know as Cyberspace. Having been removed from reality for so long, he floated around a bit to regain his familiarity with the concept of existing.

"It does take a little while to get used to it again," a voice he identified as X's admitted. He noticed the familiar blue glow beside him.

"I take it you've done this before," he said to his friend. X nodded. "Well, what am I doing here?"

"You're about to be reborn," X said, sounding satisfied with himself.

"Odd," Zero said, "I don't remember doing it this way before."

"Yes, well," X said, sounding slightly embarrassed, "things have gotten a little...strange in the real world. Things which should have remained buried and gone have returned, things which you were supposed to have dealt with. Luckily for us, a certain..." X paused as he searched for the right word, "...unique opportunity has presented itself."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that," Zero said. "What exactly does this 'unique opportunity' entail?"

"I've found a way for you to return to the world of the living and retain your knowledge of self," X excitedly explained to his friend. "Basically, you'll remember everything that you know now, but you'll be alive again."

Zero was silent for a moment before responding. "X, I've discovered that I've been around for an awfully long time. However, you're the only one I've ever met that's thought he could cheat at reincarnation. And the scary thing is, I think you can probably do it."

X came as close to grinning as an orb of blue-white light could get. "Well, unlike some of us, I've spent my time in Eden learning a lot of things."

Happiness filled Zero as he remembered his time spent in Eden with his love, most recently known as Iris, who was waiting for him to return. "You have your priorities, I have mine," he replied to X, unashamed.

X laughed - it had been a long time since he'd seen Zero so happy.

"Anyway, the opportunity won't last long, so let's get going." The blue orb flew off, leaving Zero to follow along behind. Although Zero had no idea what X had in store for him, his trust in his friend was as strong as ever as he followed after the little blue light without any further explanation.

* * *

X halted abruptly. "There," he said, pointing below them. An interesting scene was unfolding in the cave below, none of which Zero understood.

The bodies of several reploids were strewn about the cavern - they resembled the Pantheon soldiers that Zero was so familiar with from his time battling Neo Arcadia. Most of them were dead, the rest dying; some were in several pieces, blown apart by a variety of different weapons, while others were sliced cleanly in two.

At one end of the room marched a long line of the familiar looking blue drones. They were armed with an assortment of different weaponry, ranging from beam sabers and lances to plasma guns and some sort of grenade launcher. They marched forward slowly, firing their weapons at three figures on the far side of the room.

Two of the three still stood, one male with a female behind. The female's light pink coat was stained with blood, though it didn't look to be her own. Long blonde hair extended from beneath her squarish red cap, trailing down to the third figure resting in her lap.

The third figure was also female, dressed in a tan jacket and skin-tight blue pants, ripped and stained in several places. Held back in a ponytail by a red ribbon, her silver-white hair was mottled with dark red blood, indicating a head wound. Though she seemed barely able to remain conscious, she was still trying to get to her feet to continue fighting; she wasn't going to die lying down. She clutched a plasma gun of some sort in one hand, and a small metallic object in the other - Zero couldn't tell what it was from this distance.

The figure in front looked almost exactly as Zero remembered himself looking when he'd been alive. A long blonde ponytail extended from beneath a bright red helmet, which matched the red armor plating covering the warrior's body. His left hand held a gun which bore a striking resemblance to his old Z-Buster, while his right grasped the hilt of a beam sword. He was desperately trying to protect the two women behind him from the assaults of the machines bearing down on them, but it didn't look like he'd be able to last much longer.

"What am I supposed to be seeing, X?" Zero asked his friend. "I have no idea what's going on here or who any of these people are. Please, feel free to explain the situation."

"No time for that," X replied. "See that guy down there?" X's light motioned toward the figure that resembled Zero just as he failed to block a barrage of laser fire.

"The idiot who just got shot in the chest? What about him?" "He's carrying the thing that's going to let you be reborn into the world. Once he gets hit a few more times you'll see it. All you have to do is fly down and touch it."

"Then what?"

"You'll figure it out. Just trust me okay? Look, there it is!"

Zero watched as the warrior failed to deflect another round of plasma bullets, taking several direct hits. It was obvious he wouldn't be able to take many more before he completely collapsed from his injuries.

A burst of light suddenly engulfed the young man. After it subsided, Zero saw that the figure had undergone a drastic transformation. In place of the desperate red-armored fighter stood a young man, no more than twenty years old. Clutched in both of his hands were small pieces of metal similar to the one held by the injured woman. He slowly sank to his knees, his body covered in plasma burns. As he did the two pieces of metal slipped from his grasp, tumbling onto the floor where Zero could get a good look at them. Zero was shocked to discover that they bore loose resemblances to X and himself.

"X, what's going on? Why do those two pieces of metal look like..." Zero began, then X gave him a spiritual shove down to the cavern floor.

"It'll all make sense soon, just get down there!" He yelled after his friend.

As he drifted down to the ground, Zero's light-form was drawn to the piece of metal that looked so much like him. Before he knew what was happening he was being pulled in with such force that he found he was unable to escape. It felt like the small metal fragment was calling to him.

"X!" he yelled, a hint of desperation in his voice. "What the hell have you gotten me into this time?!"

"Good luck!" he heard X yell back as his cyber-elf form was sucked completely into the metal.

* * *

Author's Note

Oooo, cliffhanger.

I'm actually pretty horrible at writing trippy descriptive dialogue. I'm hoping Eden came out all right. Feel free to let me know what you think! :)

And if you're the kind of person who likes the action scenes better than the fluffy scenes, don't worry - there's plenty of that coming.

Canonical Notes

One thing that always bugged me about ZXA is that there's absolutely no mention of Prairie. I'm inclined to believe they killed her off somewhere between ZX and ZXA while the Guardian HQ was traipsing around the world destroying Model W's, but since they don't really say much one way or the other, I'm writing this story as though she's still alive, because I happen to like Prairie.

The Megaman series have always been vague on their dates, which can be very frustrating at times. For the sake of this story, I have assumed a period of about 200 years between MMZ4 and MMZX, with 4 years and 8 months between ZX and ZXA. All other chronological information will be revealed through the course of the plot.

I think that's all for now. Ciao!


	3. Part 3: Rebirth

Disclaimer: Megaman isn't mine! This story is! Touch one, but not the other! The end.

(I forgot this last time :\)

* * *

Part 3: Rebirth

Zero opened his eyes. This immediately struck him as odd, since he couldn't remember the last time he'd had eyes to open. He also quickly realized that he was standing up, another unfamiliar feeling. These two sensations combined together to form a realization.

_I have a body again?_ He thought to himself as he moved about, testing various body parts that he had grown used to not having. _Looks like it's the same as when I died. _He shrugged, another action he wasn't quite familiar with. _No reason for it to change, I guess._

Quickly getting over his shock at having a body again, Zero noticed that he was standing on a white floor. Looking ahead he could see that the featureless surface stretched for as far as his optics could see. Wherever he was, it was very big, very white, and very boring.

"Where am I?" he wondered aloud.

"You're inside a biometal," a voice that sounded exactly like his said from behind him. Zero whirled around and saw a mirror image of himself standing behind him, a beam saber held in his right hand. "The question is, how did you get here?"

"I'm not sure, actually," Zero responded, eyeing the saber carefully. Zero wasn't sure what the other Zero meant by a 'biometal', but he was sure that he didn't have anything to defend himself with should his opponent decide to start waving his saber around. "Who are you? And what's a biometal?"

"A biometal is a relic of the past that contains a fragment of the power and consciousness of dead heroes," the other Zero replied matter-of-factly, like he was reading from an encyclopedia. "Now I repeat, how did you enter this place?"

"Hm..." Zero pondered his double's response, trying to figure out what was going on. _Dammit X, you could have at least given me some sort of hint as to what the hell you were dumping me into. I was never good at this thinking thing._

"Who are you? How did you enter this biometal?" the other Zero demanded again as he raised his beam saber, leveling it with Zero's chest. "You'd better start talking, or I'll start cutting, starting with-"

An idea sparked in Zero's mind. "Did Ciel make you?" he asked abruptly, interrupting his double's threat.

"Wh-what?" Other-Zero stuttered, caught off guard. "How do you know that name?" "Answer the question."

After a few moments of silence, Other-Zero decided to respond. "Yes, I and five other Biometals were created by Professor Ciel. Four of them were infused with the sparks of consciousness left behind in the bodies of the four great Generals of the former Neo Arcadia. She created the personalities of the remaining two based on her own memories of them, since their bodies no longer existed to extract data from."

Zero smiled. "So you represent Ciel's memories of Zero, while the blue Biometal represents her memories of X." He was finally starting to piece together what was going on here.

Other-Zero regarded him carefully, weighing his every word. "You seem to know a lot about Ciel, yet you don't know what a biometal is, despite being able to consciously enter one. If the real Zero hadn't been killed in the battle of Ragnarok, I'd be tempted to think you were him."

Zero chuckled. "Yes, I can see how you'd be confused right now. Zero did 'die' on Ragnarok, but..." He looked his double in the eye. "Legends never really die."

"So, you claim that you're me?" the double said.

"No, I am what you represent," Zero explained. "You're what Ciel thought I was, whereas I am...no, that doesn't sound right." Zero had to pause for a moment as he searched for the right words. "It's more like...I'm what Zero was, while you're what I wish I had been."

"But if you died, how are you here now?" Other-Zero was clearly confused. Honestly, Zero wasn't entirely sure he understood himself, but he never would have admitted as much - especially to himself.

"As it was explained to me, death is simply the beginning of another journey. That journey has brought me back here, to deal with things that should have been laid to rest long ago."

Other-Zero was silent again as he tried to digest what Zero was telling him. Finally he responded, sighing heavily as he deactivated the beam saber in his hand. "I wouldn't believe you if you weren't already doing the impossible by standing here talking to me. Only the unique bio-signature of Zero can enter this biometal. I guess that proves you really are...the real Zero."

"Glad you see it my way," Zero said, satisfied with himself, twice. He was very glad that Ciel had created such a faithful representation of him. Given time he would have loved to discover more about this thing that was supposed to be him, but he knew there was no time for such things. While he debated with himself inside of the biometal events continued to transpire in the outside world, events which he was needed to deal with. "Now, I need your help."

"Of course. It would be an honor to help out the legend I'm supposed to be, though I'm not sure what I can do that you can't."

"Well, I can't really do anything at the moment, since I'm nothing more than a cyber-elf. I need a body. Somehow you bonded with that young man-"

"Vent?" Other-Zero said. "Yes, biometals can bond with humans who contain a compatible genetic sequence using the Meta-Encapsulated Granule Awareness system. It allows us to manifest our powers through the host's body. However, Vent has been badly injured and can't maintain a stable connection to the M.E.G.A system, so the biolink was broken."

Zero thought about this for a moment. "Why exactly do you need a host body? What purpose does it serve?" he asked his double.

"Biometals contain only a fragment of life energy within them. The host body is required to provide the two things the M.E.G.A. system needs to operate: a source of life energy that is compatible with that contained within the Biometal, and a physical body to manifest upon."

Zero nodded several times as he took in this information, a plan slowly beginning to form in his mind. "So if you had an alternate source of compatible energy, you could form a biolink with anyone you wanted?"

"I guess so, yeah," Other-Zero replied, confused, "though I'm not sure how such a situation could be possible. What are you getting at?"

"Well, why don't you use me as a source of life energy?" Zero said. "We're the same person - you're not going to get any more compatible than that. Then you can just use parts of the wrecked reploids scattered all over the room to create a suitable body for you - me, us, whatever - to manifest on."

Other-Zero's mouth opened and closed several times as he made futile attempts to explain the various reasons why such a thing was completely out of the question, impossible, and dangerous. However, knowing himself as well as he did, he knew it was pointless.

"The idea does have some merit," he finally admitted, "though I have no idea if it will actually work. No one's ever even tried to do something like this before."

"I'm used to blazing my own paths through life. I'm confident it'll work out fine," Zero said, remembering how he'd gotten into this situation in the first place. X wouldn't have thrust him in here if he didn't think there was a way for him to return to the world of the living, and this seemed to be the most likely way to do it. "However, there is one other problem..."

"Of course," Other-Zero replied dryly, "things are never that easy. What else is there?" Zero chose his next words carefully. "You...know things that I need to know but don't have time to learn," he said. "If I merge your...consciousness...with mine when we inhabit this new body, I'll gain access to everything you know. Unfortunately..."

"I will cease to exist in the process," Other-Zero finished the thought.

"That's pretty much it, yeah," Zero confirmed.

Other-Zero took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Well, it wouldn't be fair to keep the stand-in around when the main act has returned." Then he smiled. "Besides, it would be an honor to be of assistance to the legend whose image I was created in."

Zero smiled back. "Thanks." His smile grew into a grin. "If it makes you feel better, you did a great job of being me while I was gone."

"I tried my best, Zero," Other-Zero said, his face a mirror of Zero's own. "So let's get started. When you're ready, grab my arm and yell 'Megamerge', all right? I'll take care of the rest."

Zero cocked an eyebrow. "Don't you think that's a little overly dramatic?" he asked.

"Don't look at me, I'm not the one who designed the system." Other-Zero held up his arm, bent upward at the elbow. "Ready?" he asked.

Zero nodded. "Thanks again." He clasped his double's forearm with his own, staring him in the eyes.

Other-Zero returned the nod. "Good luck."

Then, as one, the two Zeroes shouted in unison.

"Megamerge!"

The world was filled with light.

* * *

"Ashe, stop trying to get up, you're only making things worse!" Prairie said urgently as she tried to stop the female Hunter's already extensive injuries from breaking open even further. She'd taken a nearly direct hit from a shrapnel grenade - only Model A's power had saved her life. Now, without the additional power from the biolink, Ashe was in no shape to be moving around, let alone firing a plasma pistol at mavericks.

"Dammit Prairie, if I don't help Vent none of us are going to live long enough for it to matter!" Ashe yelled back, still struggling to reach her feet. Reluctantly Prairie helped her up - if she didn't the girl would just hurt herself even more trying to do it alone.

Vent grunted in pain beside them as he failed to dodge a stream of plasma bullets. He returned fire with his ZX-Buster, blowing the offending maverick into bits and pieces, then quickly cut through several more volleys of energy bullets with his saber.

"Vent!" Prairie exclaimed, reaching out for him. "You can't take too much more of this!"

"I know!" he responded, suppressing the panic that tried to creep into his voice. "We need to find some way out of here before they-ahhh!" Vent's body was pelted with another barrage of plasma fire that slipped past his whirling saber, leaving plasma burns across his chest. Having finally received too much damage, Vent lost the biolink with Model X and Model Z and collapsed to the ground, the two biometals slipping from his grasp.

Without the protective armor given to him by the biometals Vent's collection of injuries became evident. Prairie gasped as she got a good look at the number of saber and plasma wounds he'd sustained - far more than Ashe had before she'd lost her biolink. It was obvious that even though Vent still reached for Model X, it was likely he wouldn't live through another hit, biolink or not.

"They're almost here!" Ashe yelled, the panic in her voice not nearly as controlled as Vent's. Prairie continued to support her as she fired several rounds from her plasma pistol, but her attention was all on Vent as he struggled across the floor of the cavern toward Model Z.

"If I can just..." Vent reached out to pick up the red and white biometal, but just before he could grasp it, the biometal began to glow with a soft red light.

"What...?" Vent said, puzzled, as the biometal pulsed slowly, almost like a heartbeat. Afraid to touch it, Vent stared dumbly at it. "Model Z, what's going on?" he asked the biometal.

"Vent!" yelled Ashe, clearly panicking as she ducked down to avoid more plasma fire. She was leaning heavily against Prairie - she was about to collapse. "Vent, what's happening?!" Then she too noticed the glow as it continued to expand. "Model Z...?"

Suddenly a white light exploded out of the biometal, quickly filling the entire room. The three friends quickly averted their eyes before they were blinded.

Though she was forced to keep her eyes shut, Prairie could hear the sounds of metal moving around her. Blocking the light coming from Model Z with her free hand, she opened her eyes slightly to see what was going on. What she saw was like nothing she'd ever seen before.

Parts of destroyed Pantheon soldiers from all over the room were rushing towards Model Z, swirling around in the air as though they were caught in a tornado. Several pieces hit Vent, who still had his eyes closed; he instinctively moved backward, out of the way. There didn't seem to be any sort of organization to it - several limbs, heads, and torsos were sucked into the vortex surrounding Model Z.

Glancing off towards the approaching mavericks, Prairie saw that despite the strange phenomenon taking place, their attackers were still marching toward them. Whatever was happening to Model Z, she didn't think it would be over in time to make a difference.

After a few moments the vortex of swirling reploid parts stopped growing, instead becoming smaller and smaller as the pieces swirled closer to Model Z, eventually disappearing from sight in the bright light. Although she could no longer see what was happening, Prairie could hear the sickening crunch of metal coming from inside the light. What exactly was happening to Model Z? It didn't matter, in a few moments the waves of mavericks would be walking past their shoddy barricades and they'd all be dead anyway...

Abruptly the sound of twisting metal stopped. As the light began to recede, Prairie heard a very familiar voice.

"Biolink established. M.E.G.A. system online."

As the light faded completely from view, Prairie, Vent, and Ashe all looked up at the figure that now stood where only moments ago there had been a biometal.

To Ashe, the figure's distinctive helmet and ponytail made him look vaguely like Vent while he was Megamerged with Model Z and Model X. However, underneath the red armor there was no skin - rather, it seemed this person's body was created entirely from scrapped pieces of Pantheon soldiers. It looked rather gruesome, but it was more or less covered by the thick red plating.

To Vent, the newcomer's red armor reminded him of Giro when he'd been Megamerged with Model Z. Although he had a finned helmet similar to his own instead of the black visor that had been a part of Giro's Megamerged form, he still felt a pang of nostalgia for his old friend when he looked at the strange figure.

To Prairie, it was like seeing a memory walk out of her dreams and into the waking world.

Vent was the first to collect himself enough to say something. "Model Z, what...what did you just..." he stammered.

"Vent, you should have enough energy left to form a biolink using only Model X," the new form of Model Z said. "Protect Ashe and Prair-" He stopped in mid-sentence as his gaze fell on the Guardian Commander. Still bewildered by recent events, Prairie could only stare into the eyes of what appeared to be Zero, reborn in front of her. Then the strange reploid smiled, his next words confirming that her suspicion was true.

"Hello Alouette," Zero said. Then he abruptly turned and sidestepped a Pantheon soldier as it charged past the barricades, then neatly cleaved it in two with a single stroke. "I can honestly say I didn't expect to see you here.

"As I was saying - Vent, you protect these two. I'm going to see what I can do about getting us out of here." Then he leapt over the barricades and disappeared into the waves of approaching mavericks, who all focused their attention on the new attacker, leaving the three injured fighters behind the barricades alone - which Prairie knew was exactly what Zero wanted.

"Who the hell was that?" Ashe asked, bewildered, as Vent quickly Megamerged with Model X. "How did he know our names? What was that he called you? And what happened to Model Z?" Ashe looked to Prairie for answers.

"He's a friend," Prairie said as she ducked behind a barricade, pulling Ashe down with her as Vent took up a defensive position beside them. "I don't know how it's possible for him to be here, but he's here to help. We can trust him."

"I hope so," Vent said faintly as he peered into the tunnel beyond. "You should see what he's doing to these mavericks - this is insane. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that sword."

"What do you mean by - ah!" Struggling to see over the barricade, Ashe fell back against Prairie as she gasped in pain. She saw blood beginning to soak through the left side of Ashe's jumpsuit from the newly-opened wound.

"I told you not to move!" Prairie exclaimed as she gently set Ashe back on the ground, putting pressure on the new injury with her hands. "You're need to stop moving around or..." she couldn't finish the sentence.

"There isn't much to see, actually," Vent said, astonished. "He's so fast I can't even follow him. It's like they're just falling over whenever he gets close." He shook his head in disbelief. "Who is this guy?"

Prairie couldn't help but smile a little. "If you'd ever read a history file you'd know," she said. "May I introduce to you the hero of the ancient Maverick Wars, the one who saved Area Zero by defeating Dr. Weil and destroying the space station Ragnarok before it could crash into the Earth, and...the one whose image Model Z was created in. That," Prairie pointed dramatically towards the battlefield, "is Zero."

Vent and Ashe could only stare at Prairie in silence as they attempted to digest this unbelievable piece of information.

* * *

Author's Note

The second half of this part was originally in Part 4, but that made part 3 really small and part 4 really huge, so I moved it over.

And now for a little surprise. Beginning now, I'm going to end each part with a little special bonus...outtakes! These are just funny little things I thought up myself while I was writing the story - I have a hard time taking myself seriously sometimes. To make things easier, the italicized parts are what's actually in the story, followed by the outtake. Hope you enjoy them :). ANd if you don't, well, that's why they're at the bottom of the page.

Canonical Notes

So, there will undoubtedly be someone who doesn't like Model Z's overly-simple explanation for how biometals work. However, even if his explanation does seem to make sense, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the truth. Maybe Model Z doesn't know as much about biometals as he thinks he does...hmm...

MungoJerry - thanks for the props! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As for the four Generals...well, there's gotta be SOMEONE in charge of all those mavericks, right? ;). Also, it is specifically stated in ZX (I forget where) that when "sis" created the biometals, she made H, L, P, and F using real data, but had to make X and Z from her own memory since there was nothing left of either X or Zero's bodies. I wish I could remember where, but I didn't make that part up. So I guess you could say I 4/7-ths (four-sevenths) agree with you. I can't say anymore lest I spoil things ;).

Until next time! (Which should be this weekend.)

Outtakes

_ Zero nodded. "Thanks again." He clasped his double's forearm with his own, staring him in the eyes._

_ Other-Zero returned the nod. "Good luck."_

_ Then, as one, the two Zeroes shouted in unison._

Zero & Model Z (together): Wonder twin powers, activate! Form of: ultimate robot badass!

Author: CUT! What the hell?

Zero: Oh come on, you know this is way cooler than that "Megamerge" crap. Everyone loves the Wonder Twins!

Author: I'll get you for this.

_ To Vent, the newcomer's red armor reminded him of Giro when he'd been Megamerged with Model Z. Although he had a finned helmet similar to his own instead of the black visor that had been a part of Giro's Megamerged form, he still felt a pang of nostalgia for his old friend when he looked at the strange figure._

_ To Prairie, it was like seeing a memory walk out of her dreams and into the waking world._

Except this time he was wearing a lovely pink dress, covered in fluffy white bunnies.

Zero: H-hey! What the hell is this?

Author: Told you I'd get you back. Now stick to the script or I'll start putting in girly-bot jokes, too.

Zero: You are an evil, evil man.


	4. Part 4: Savior

Disclaimer: Story's mine, characters aren't.

* * *

Part 4: Savior

Zero crouched down and spun in a circle, slicing through the upper legs of three more Pantheon drones in a single slice before leaping into the air and taking out two helicopter turrets. On the way down he neatly planted his boot in the optics of yet another Pantheon, then turned and launched a charged shot at another column of enemies. The small plasma cannon he'd picked up from a fallen Pantheon unit along the way was no replacement for the Z-Buster he was used to, but it would have to do for now.

While it felt good to be fighting again, Zero had quickly determined that there were several differences between this shoddily constructed body and what he was used to. He had already taken a few grazing hits as his body failed to react with the speed that was required. Not only that, but the armor on the Pantheon reploids his body was created from was pretty poor quality - their blue plating was nothing like the titanium alloy his previous bodies had been made from, meaning he was taking significantly higher energy drains per hit than he was comfortable with. He wasn't overly worried about taking too much damage from enemies like these - even after dispatching dozens of them he hadn't sustained any significant amount of damage - but there was no way he could hold up for the amount of time it would take to destroy every enemy in the cavern, as was his usual style.

_I need to find a way to get the others out of here before this body collapses under the pressure,_ Zero thought to himself. If he took too much damage and lost the biolink, he'd be stuck as a helpless biometal.

Zero ducked behind a small pile of boulders for cover while he took a quick survey of the cavern. It seemed to be a mine of some sort - cart rails and thick support beams lined the floors and walls, while several piles of rubble similar to the one he was currently hiding behind were piled periodically along the sides of the tunnel. The mavericks were pouring forth from some point farther down the passage - their sheer numbers blocked him from seeing any farther than a few hundred feet.

Seeing only one available option, Zero took a deep breath and focused his concentration before jumping back into the melee. _Time to go find a mine cart._

_

* * *

_

"What's happening now?" Vent heard Ashe ask anxiously from the ground. "Is he still scrapping mavericks? I can't hear him anymore."

"He jumped behind some rocks over there," Vent replied. "I don't think he was hit. Maybe he just needed a breather?" he guessed.

Prairie shook her head. "No, he's used to this kind of thing."

"You're not serious," Ashe said disbelievingly, but the look Prairie shot at her changed her mind. "Okay then, maybe he's just tired from having just come back to life, or something."

"Maybe," Prairie responded, "but it's more likely that he's trying to think of a way to get us all out of here in one piece."

"Oh come _on_!" Ashe said, still not believing what she was hearing. "So you're saying that not only is he taking out an entire legion of mavericks by himself, but he's doing it while formulating an escape plan for our sorry hides?"

"Probably." Prairie shrugged. "Even I don't really know everything he can do, especially since his body looks like it's just a bunch of Pantheons mashed together and Megamerged with Model Z - don't ask me how he managed that, I know as much as you do. However, I don't imagine he's capable of using all of his abilities yet."

Ashe decided she'd better stop talking until Prairie said something that wasn't completely ridiculous.

"I know it sounds unbelievable Ashe, but sitting here watching him in action, I think I agree with Prairie," Vent put in. "He probably stopped to get a better look at-" he broke off as the communicator in his helmet began to beep. "What the...I thought communications were jammed. Who could...who's this?" he spoke into the communicator.

"_Vent, get everyone ready to move._" The transmission cut off as abruptly as it had started.

"Zero?" Vent exclaimed. "What's going on? What's the plan? Zero?" There was no response. "Damn. How did he get my communicator frequency?"

"Probably because he's also Model Z," Prairie reminded him as she helped Ashe to her feet. "Now come on, if he says we're moving, we'd better be ready when he gets here."

"But how can he possibly-"

"Guardian Vent!" Prairie shouted, putting emphasis on the title. "As your commanding officer, I am giving you an order! Now stop arguing with me and let's get ready to move!"

Vent looked to Ashe for support, who simply waved him away. "Don't look at me. I'm keeping my mouth shut until this girl starts talking sense." Prairie shot her a nasty look, which Ashe returned. "Hey, don't you start trying to order me around. I'm a Hunter, not a Guardian."

"I'm starting to wonder why I'm bothering to save your ungrateful little..." A deep rumbling sound from down the tunnel interrupted Prairie's threat. The three companions all turned and looked down the passage in time to see a mine cart speeding down the rails that covered the floors, heading straight for them. The automated driving system put on the brakes just in time to have the cart coast gently to a stop a few dozen feet away.

The cart was a massive thing a dozen feet high, eight feet wide, and twenty feet deep - it resembled a giant steel brick on wheels. Designed to carry heavy loads of rock, ore, and crystal, the sides of the cart were made of incredibly dense alloys that were easily capable of withstanding heavy weapons fire. A small control panel on the back of the cart glowed with a soft light, with blinking green and red indicator lights showing the status of the track at various points down the tunnel.

Vent moved out from behind the barricades first, making sure the coast was clear before waving the other two out. Prairie supported Ashe as they limped over to the mine cart. The Guardian leader was just looking over the cart control console when Zero reached them, dashing full speed around the corner.

"Get in," he said, pressing on a section of the control panel. The back panel of the cart slid open, revealing a pile of explosives piled inside the cart.

"Zero, where did you..." Prairie began to ask.

"They were getting ready to send this cart down the tunnel at you. I think it's pretty obvious that whoever is behind this wants to make sure we don't get out of here alive. Obviously, I plan to change that." He motioned up to the cart. "Now get in, we don't have much time before the next wave of them gets here."

Prairie looked at the pile of explosives in the cart, then back at Zero. "Zero, isn't this kind of..."

"They'll give us the distraction we need to escape," Zero interrupted her. Then he did something Prairie had never expected to see Zero do.

"Trust me," he said, smiling slightly. "Please, Alouette?"

Stunned into silence for only a moment, Prairie quickly nodded, pushing Ashe up into the cart. Zero turned to Vent.

"When I give you the signal," the red reploid tapped Vent on the side of the head where his communicator was, "I need the three of you to open the back doors and get out of the cart." He glanced briefly at Ashe. "Prairie should be able to jump out at that speed without any trouble, but you might want to hold on to Ashe."

Vent nodded and jumped into the cart - he didn't know exactly what was going on, but if Prairie trusted this stranger she claimed was a long-lost hero, then he would too, for the time being.

Zero turned to Ashe. "You mind if I borrow that?" he said, pointing to the plasma pistol hanging from her belt. "I...lost mine somewhere."

Ashe sighed. "Why not?" she said, then tossed him the firearm. "Not like I'm doing all that much good with it."

Zero took a moment to check the gun's weight and sight, tossing it from hand to hand and pointing it at the wall in several places. "Good gun. Hate to lose it." Then he pressed on the control pad and the cart door slid shut again.

"Hey!" Vent exclaimed. "Why isn't Zero getting in here too?" He turned on his communicator and responded on the frequency Zero had contacted him with earlier.

"Zero! What are you doing out there?!"

The cart jerked to life as Zero responded, "clearing a path."

His mouth hanging open in disbelief, Vent turned to Prairie, who simply smiled back at him.

"Don't worry Vent," she said calmly. "Believe in him."

"Jerk better bring my gun back," Ashe grumbled.

* * *

Zero climbed to the top of the mine cart as it accelerated down the track, the squeaking wheels echoing noisily down the tunnel. Whoever was leading this assault knew he'd taken their stash of explosives, and now they could hear him coming back - they'd be ready for him.

_Luckily I don't have to get very far,_ Zero thought to himself as he gripped his Z-Saber tightly in his right hand, Ashe's plasma pistol ready in his left. He headed to the front of the cart, ready to blast any obstructions out of the way.

It was only moments before the cart reached the first line of mavericks. They all opened fire as it sped by, their shots leaving nothing but scorch marks on the heavy reinforced siding of the transport. It had been designed to carry raw energy crystals, which were quite volatile. Therefore, if something were to happen to the crystals that caused them to explode, the cart had to be strong enough to contain the blast in order to prevent a disastrous cave-in. It could easily shrug off the power of a few measly plasma weapons.

Zero kept a close eye on the tracks ahead for any signs of sabotage, but saw none. Apparently whoever was leading this assault hadn't thought his opponent would do something this crazy - one of the key reasons why he was sure it would work.

In the distance, Zero saw a figure standing on the rails ahead. Although he doubted one lone maverick would be able to hurt the momentum of the cart, Zero calmly lifted the plasma pistol and took aim anyway - no use taking any chances at this point.

Suddenly, enormous gouts of flame erupted from the figure, heading straight for Zero. He rolled backward in the nick of time, feeling the heat as two fireballs shot through the space he'd just occupied. The blasts exploded against the ceiling above him, raining debris down on the top of the cart.

Zero readied his saber as the figure leapt up to challenge him, its two knuckle busters pointed directly at him.

Zero quickly took note of the fact that the figure was a female. Model Z's knowledge supplied him with the fact that this was the biomatch for the Model F biometal - the Model F Mega Man, as they were referred to - but he didn't know her name.

The girl's knuckle busters emitted a low-pitched whine as they charged power. "I don't know who or what you are," she yelled, "but there's no way you're getting out of here alive!" She fired another pair of enormous fireballs, followed by a barrage of smaller energy shots.

Zero nimbly slid between the two fireballs as they sped harmlessly past him, then deflected the smaller projectiles with a flurry of saber slashes. After weathering that onslaught he was caught slightly off guard as the girl charged straight at him, her right buster drawn back for a punch. Zero dodged backward with a series of nimble hops, trying to get some distance and prepare a counterattack, but the girl pressed her advantage and continued her rushing assault.

Unable to get his saber into a good attacking position, Zero was forced to dodge the attacks as best he could. However, after a short series of twists and weaves, his body finally failed him - unable to move as fast as required, the girl's left buster finally managed to connect with his stomach, sending him flying backward. He bounced across the top of the cart and barely managed to stop himself from falling off. As he got back to his feet the girl landed a short distance in front of him.

"I'll smash you to bits!" she yelled triumphantly, grinning at her success. Her busters whined with the charge of energy again as she prepared to finish off her adversary.

Zero knew he had to end this quickly - it was obvious that in his current state he was no match for another Mega Man. If he sustained another direct hit like that he would lose the biolink with the body he'd constructed and revert back to just being a biometal - who knew what would happen to him then.

Luckily, it was just then that Zero saw their destination up ahead - an elevator door embedded in the rock wall. From the glance he'd taken at the control console on the back of the mine cart earlier, Zero knew that the track was broken a short distance ahead - he was hoping that the elevator still functioned. He only had to delay for a few more moments before the cart reached it.

Since he knew there was no way his body was a match for the girl, he tried a different tactic.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" Zero said, carefully keeping his voice level.

The girl was slightly startled by the sudden strange question. "No, and I don't care!" she yelled back at him. "Shut up and die!"

"You should," Zero replied calmly, "or at least, your biometal should. I'm the only one who ever defeated him."

"Who cares!" screamed a third voice - the voice of Model F. "If I take you down now, that's all that matters!" Zero noted that the girl looked surprised to hear the voice - apparently she hadn't known the biometal could speak.

"Since when you can talk?" the girl said, bewildered, though she kept her busters trained on Zero.

"I could always talk!" the biometal said angrily. "But who the hell needs to talk when you can blow stuff up! Now hurry up and take him out!"

"Poor Fefnir," Zero said, shaking his head. "You haven't learned a thing."

"What the hell are you talking about!" Fefnir's voice screamed again, it's pitch steadily rising. "You're screwed now! There's no way I'm letting you escape this time!"

"Sorry, but I didn't come back just to help you inflate your ego some more," Zero replied dryly. "I've got more important things to do." He tapped the side of his helmet, activating his communicator. "Vent, now!" Then he threw himself backward off of the mine cart.

Momentarily surprised by the entire scene, the Model F Mega Man hesitated a moment before firing her two fireballs.

As Zero fell to the ground he whipped up the plasma pistol, ready to unload as many shots into the back of the cart as he could to detonate the explosives. Before he could fire, however, the girl's parting shots hit their targets: one took him directly in the left arm, knocking the pistol from his grasp, while the other hit him in the left leg, knocking it out from under him.

Zero cried out as he fell helplessly to the tunnel floor - not from his injuries, but because he had no way of setting off the explosives in the cart.

Suddenly, two blasts of bright white plasma blazed through the air over his head, heading straight for the back of the cart. Zero could see the girl on top of the transport as she watched the two blasts hit their targets, as well as the brief flash of panic that crossed her face as she realized what was about to happen.

The mountain of explosives detonated with a thunderous roar, sending a massive shockwave down both sides of the tunnel. Zero ducked his head as dust and debris flew past him, the force of the blast taking out most of the mavericks left standing in the tunnel behind them.

As he felt the rush of air subside, Zero lifted his head. The tunnel in front of him had completely collapsed, leaving nothing but a pile of rubble. He also saw the lone figure of the Model F Mega Man lying on the ground a short distance from him, blown away by the blast. She didn't look dead, but she wasn't moving, either.

_She's tough, I'll give her that much,_ Zero said with a grudging respect. _Fefnir may not have been the brightest of the Guardians, but he definitely knew a good warrior when he saw one._

Looking over his shoulder, Zero saw the figure of Vent, still Megamerged with Model X, picking himself up off the ground. The two blasts that had set off the cart full of explosives had undoubtedly come from the twin X-Busters that had appeared on his forearms.

"Thanks for the backup," Zero said as he got to his feet. "I owe you for that one."

"I may not know you as well as the real X did," the voice of Model X said, "but I certainly know you well enough to figure out what your plan was."

"You could have told me beforehand," Vent grumbled, "rather than just start yelling 'shoot, shoot, shoot!'".

"I thought he would have it under control," Model X replied innocently. "You had to act fast, I didn't have time to explain."

Zero allowed himself another small smile as he turned away. "Go check on Prairie and Ashe, and see if you can get that elevator working," he said, then walked toward the still form of the girl on the ground. "I'll be right there."

He was no expert on human injuries, but even Zero could tell the girl had taken heavy damage. Her entire backside looked like it had been caught in a roasting pit, her Model F armor having been blown off in several places. He was surprised she was still able to maintain her biolink.

"You still there, Fefnir?" Zero said aloud.

"Of course I'm still here," the biometal said gruffly. "You think something stupid like an eighty-gigaton explosion would be enough to take me out? Hah!"

"Good to know. Now, mind explaining what the hell you're doing, attaching yourself to this girl? She important to you?"

"Of course not!" Model F replied quickly - a little too quickly. "She just happens to be my kind of person. Aim, fire, ready! Know what I mean?"

"I can see why you get along. But you're fighting for the wrong side." Zero held out his hand. "Come with me, Fefnir."

A moment of silence followed the offer before Fefnir finally replied.

"I don't _think_ so!" he yelled. "You finally come back to life and give me a chance to show once and for all that I'm better than you, and you want me to throw that away? If I'm on your side, how the hell am I supposed to beat you down?!"

Zero didn't buy that excuse for a second. Taking a closer look at the damaged form of Fefnir's biomatch on the ground, he quickly saw the truth hidden behind Fefnir's words.

"All right then, have it your way. But the offer still stands, if you ever change your mind."

"Like hell I will! Next time I see you I'm takin' you down, Zero!" Fefnir's voice was still full of anger, as it always was.

Zero could hear the sound of drills behind the rubble as the maverick forces dug their way through the tunnel to continue their pursuit. He chuckled as he turned away, smiling again. "You're getting soft in your old age. Until next time, then."

"SCREW YOU!" Fefnir bellowed at Zero's back as he walked away. "If I had a body, I'd come kick your ass right now, dammit!" It really was amazing how much volume one little piece of biometal could put out.

* * *

Reaching the elevator, Zero saw Prairie pushing buttons on the control console. It didn't seem to be doing any good - the console display remained black and unresponsive.

"Looks like it's damaged," she said with a sigh.

"Can't we just bust it down?" Ashe asked, waving at the door to the elevator shaft.

"I don't think so," Prairie said, shaking her head. "The door's made of the same dense alloy the cart was; it'd be almost impossible to damage with the weapons we've got. Besides, even if we got the door open, the elevator isn't working either."

"That's not really a problem," Zero said, "unless one of you is afraid of heights."

"Yeah, we can just jump down the sides of the shaft," Vent agreed. "Zero and I can carry the two of you down easily."

"Fine then, but that still doesn't solve the problem with...huh?" Prairie took a startled step back from the console as it suddenly sprung to life. "What's going on? It wasn't working a second ago..."

Zero grinned as the console seemed to operate itself. A few seconds later, the elevator door slid open with a beep. It ground to a halt before opening completely, but the space was wide enough for them to easily enter the elevator shaft beyond.

"Vent, you and Ashe go first," Zero said calmly to the young Guardian, ignoring what had just taken place. "Prairie and I will be right behind you."

"But...how did..." Vent stammered, looking first to Prairie, who looked as confused as he did, then Ashe, who simply shrugged.

"I stopped trying to make sense of anything going on around here a while ago," she said.

Vent sighed in defeat. "Guess we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, huh? C'mon Ashe." He gently took Ashe's battered body from Prairie, put one arm under her knees, the other behind her back, and lifted her off the ground.

"Hey, watch what you're touching down there!" Ashe scolded. "You need to learn how to treat a lady properly!"

Vent walked to the elevator shaft entrance. "'Lady' isn't the word I'd use," he said as he peered out into the shaft. Taking a quick look up and down, Vent turned around to ask, "so, up or down?"

"Down," Prairie answered immediately. Everyone gave her a curious glance, to which she replied, "I lead us in here for a reason, and that reason is located on the bottom level. We can escape from there."

"All right then," Vent said, adopting the same policy as Ashe for the time being. "See you at the bottom," he said, then disappeared into the shaft with a surprised squeak from the injured girl in his arms.

Zero turned to look at Prairie, who was chuckling at the banter between the two humans. She smiled at him and said, "don't worry about those two. They may not seem like it, but they're a lot stronger than they look."

"I know," Zero replied, allowing himself to smile back. "Not just anyone can merge with a biometal."

It made Prairie feel good to see Zero smiling - he'd done so little of it during their previous times together that Prairie hadn't been sure he was actually capable of it.

Now that they were alone and there was no immediate threat, Prairie was bursting with questions. "So, care to explain how you opened that door?" she decided to ask first.

"I didn't," Zero responded cryptically. "You didn't think I came alone, did you?"

"Huh? But I didn't see anyone else..." Prairie began looking up and down the tunnel.

"You won't, so don't bother looking," Zero informed her. "And I don't think he'll be able to make any more appearances - we're on our own after this."

"Oh, I see," was Prairie's response. Just then she saw the Model F Mega Man down the tunnel, still unconscious. "That's Atlas! She became the Model F Mega Man after the biometal was stolen from the Guardian lab. Model F isn't coming with us?"

"No," Zero responded as he scooped her up in his arms. "His biolink with that girl is the only thing keeping her alive. If he'd broken it to come with me, she'd die for sure."

"Oh..." Prairie said, her voice tinged with sadness. "That's..."

"We'll see them both again," Zero said firmly, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze with one hand. "Fefnir was never one to give up on anything, including life. I doubt that anyone he'd Megamerge with would be any different."

"Yes, I guess you're right," Prairie said with a smile, looking Zero in the eye. Something in them was different than she remembered. They seemed more peaceful, and...happy. It was a nice thing to see. "Well then, shall we?" She motioned towards the elevator shaft.

Zero nodded and headed through the elevator door. However, he took one last glance at the door controls as he walked by. Written in small white letters across the blue screen was a short message: "YOU'RE WELCOME".

Zero chuckled to himself. "You're the reason I'm in this mess to start with," he muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Prairie asked.

"Nevermind," Zero replied as he saw the console shut itself back off again. "Hold tight," he said as he hopped into the empty elevator shaft, falling into the darkness below.

* * *

Author's Note

Finally, some action! And the first enemy Mega Man makes an appearance, how exciting! But why is he helping the mavericks? Hmm...

Thanks to my reviewers! Much 3. I responded to some of the questions asked in PM's, so don't think I'm ignoring people who ask me questions! I'm just using PMs so I don't inadvertently spoil stuff for anyone. Rest assured that I read and enjoy all reviews :).

Canonical Note

I just noticed the other day that way back in part 2, when I describe Vent I say he's holding the ZX-Buster and ZX-Saber at the same time in his two hands. However, that can't be possible, since they are in fact the same weapon - it just turns sideways depending on what function it's being used for. I don't feel like going back and changing it, but I'd like to note the mistake before someone catches me on it. The rest of the story takes this into account, you'll never see him holding both weapons at the same time again.

Well then, until next time.

Outtakes

_ He was no expert on human injuries, but even Zero could tell the girl had taken heavy damage. Her entire backside looked like it had been caught in a roasting pit, her Model F armor having been blown off in several places. He was surprised she was still able to maintain her biolink._

Zero: *^#%$ got PWNED!

Author: ...I want to get angry, but that's exactly what I wanted to say too.

_ Zero nodded and headed through the elevator door. However, he took one last glance at the door controls as he walked by. Written in small white letters across the blue screen was a short message: "YOU'RE WELCOME"._

Zero: Oh you can just rot in hell, you ungrateful little son of a-

Author: CUT!


	5. Part 5: Confession

Part 5: Confession

"So, what do you think of him?" Ashe asked her friend.

"Well, he certainly is powerful," Vent replied as he easily jumped between the sides of the shaft, "and he's also very skilled. Whether he's really the Zero of legend or not is still up for debate, but I'm definitely glad he's on our side."

"But do you think we can trust him?" Ashe sounded worried. "I mean, he just showed up out of the blue like that. With everything as crazy as it is right now, we have to be careful of who we trust."

"Prairie and Model Z seem to have good reasons to trust him, and I trust their judgement," Vent said. "Besides, he did just finish saving our lives - we at least owe it to him to let him explain himself before we write him off completely."

"I guess," Ashe grudgingly admitted. While she didn't care much for his arrogant attitude, she had to respect someone who could fight off an entire legion of mavericks using a body comprised of damaged and discarded Galleon parts, biometal or not.

As the pair continued their journey into the darkness, another thought came to Ashe. "Hey, what do you think happened to the Model Z we know? I know that biometal was from someone very important to you, aren't you worried about what happened to him?"

Vent's features turned grim. "Don't worry," he said quietly. "I'll be asking him about that as soon as we get ourselves out of this mess."

Sensing that Vent didn't want to talk about it any further, Ashe simply nodded, then opened her palm to look at Model A. "You've been awfully quiet. What's gotten into you?"

"...what? Oh, uh, nothing," the little biometal sounded distracted.

"Oh come on, I can read you like a book. What's-"

"Big one coming!" Vent yelled as he suddenly made a larger jump than expected. Ashe squeaked in surprised and grabbed Vent's shoulders tightly as the air rushed by, followed by an abrupt halt as they landed on a ledge. Ashe let out a small gasp of pain as she felt the injury in her side rip open again, adding fresh blood to the stain on the side of her jumpsuit.

"Are you all right?" Vent said, his voice full of concern.

"I'm fine, you moron," came Ashe's terse reply, her voice strained. It was obvious she was in pain, but she was too proud to admit it. "Now stop paying so much attention to my fine physique and watch where you're jumping."

"I'll try, but this shaft isn't exactly well-maintained." Vent chuckled to himself. "Still, this is a lot easier than carrying you out of the Ouroboros on my back - at least in here there aren't any mavericks. You know, you still haven't thanked me for that."

"And if you keep pulling stupid stunts like that, I never will." Ashe let out an exaggerated sigh, wincing as her injury sent another sharp pain through her chest. "How far down does this shaft go, anyway? For that matter, where are we? Prairie was pretty determined to get here after we fled Legion, but all I've seen so far is a dilapidated crystal mine. And if we were trying to get out, shouldn't we be going up instead of down?"

Vent smiled at the barrage of questions - as long as Ashe kept talking, he knew she couldn't be hurting too badly. It was when she stopped talking that he'd have a problem.

"I don't know," he replied as he began his descent again, trying to keep her mind on the conversation instead of her wounds. "I don't even remember seeing this place on any maps, which is makes me wonder why Prairie knew about it. Judging by the state of the equipment it's probably been out of use for at least a hundred years or so. At any rate, whatever is down here, Prairie seemed pretty desperate to reach it, so it must be important."

"Yeah," Ashe voiced her agreement. "Maybe it'll shed some light on what's happening in Legion."

"We can only hope," Vent replied. In his mind he could clearly remember his last glimpse of Legion headquarters, turned into a smoking ruin as waves of mavericks flooded out of the building and into the surrounding streets. "I hope Thomas and Mikhail are all right," he said.

"Me too."

The two continued their descent in silence, each of them caught up in their own reflections on what was happening around them.

* * *

Prairie remained silent for quite some time as she and Zero descended down the elevator shaft. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him about so many different things, she couldn't decide what to bring up first. Her dilemma was solved when Zero finally broke the silence.

"So, care to explain why we've trapped ourselves in a run-down energy crystal mine?" he asked casually, as though it was something that happened to him every day.

Prairie's face turned a slight shade of red as she realized she really hadn't told anyone why she'd led them into the mine - there hadn't really been time for that as they ran for their lives. "The way you showed up just in time to save us, I figured you knew what was going on."

"I only know what Model Z does - did - and you never told him either."

_I'll have to remember to ask him what happened to Model Z later,_ Prairie thought to herself before answering his question.

"This isn't just an energy crystal mine," she said. "There's a hidden lab on the bottom level. Sis and I made it long after the mine had dried up and was no longer in use, and then we deleted all records of this entire facility from the Legion databases."

"Sis?" Model Z's memory meant Zero recognized the name and could picture the face, but her real name was supplied by Zero's own knowledge. "You mean..."

"Ciel, yes. Sorry, force of habit."

"I see." Zero took a moment to digest this information. "When was this?"

"2308, a year after the Legion government was established. We placed this lab close to their headquarters so we could monitor their activities."

"Why would you need to do that?"

Prairie smiled. "Ciel may have let other people take charge of the world she created, but that doesn't mean she trusted them.

"After the Legion government took over, Sis and I set up several computer labs in various remote locations around the world to act as monitoring stations. Legion was given an incredible amount of control over the lives of every human and reploid on the planet, and Ciel was determined not to let them take advantage of it."

Looking through the memories granted him by Model Z, Zero grunted. "Looks like that didn't work out as planned," he said.

"Unfortunately not," Prairie sadly agreed. "Once the mavericks began to appear it was too dangerous for Ciel and I to visit the labs - neither of us had ever been very good at fighting, and a transfer signal could have been traced. As a result we were left in the dark about Serpent and Albert's activities until it was too late to do anything about them. The labs have still been collecting data all this time, we just haven't been able to reach any of them to retrieve it."

"What's so important about this lab that you were willing to trap yourself inside of it? You have to admit, this is going reveal the lab's existence pretty clearly."

"The database servers in this particular lab were placed to keep an unmodified copy of all the information in the Legion central database. I was hoping that we could use it to find a clue as to what happened there."

"Ciel could access the servers in Legion that easily, without them being able to trace it?" Zero said skeptically.

"Of course," Prairie said very matter-of-factly, "who do you think created the Legion database to begin with?"

"Good point," Zero conceded. "I guess I should have expected that." His face turned pensive as he traversed a particularly difficult section of the elevator shaft. "What I don't get is, if it really was the same Ciel I knew that created the biometals, then that means..."

"Ciel was over two hundred years old when she-gah!"

Prairie was cut off as Zero missed his footing and abruptly plunged several dozen feet downward. Prairie threw her arms around Zero's neck as he reached out with his right hand and grabbed onto a protruding iron beam, bringing their descent to a jarring halt. "Sorry about that, I was just...what did you say?" The disbelief in Zero's tone was clear.

"Ciel volunteered to be the first human to undergo the changes brought forth by the Equality Laws," Prairie told him, referring to the law responsible for blurring the line between human and reploid. "After 2305, Ciel was more reploid than human. She felt it was something she had to do in order to bring humans and reploids to trust one another enough to pass the laws."

"I...see," was all Zero said. He continued to hang from the piece of metal for a moment, deep in thought as he tried to put everything together. Finally he swung himself over to the wall of the shaft and continued his descent downward. He still had a thoughtful look on his features so Prairie continued to restrain herself from asking him any of the dozens of questions that she was bursting to have answered.

"Well, that explains Ciel, but what about you?" Zero asked, changing the subject. "You were a bit smaller the last time I saw you."

Prairie giggled. "There's a bit of a story behind that, too. You remember how I was an orphan?" Zero nodded. "Well, since Ciel had been looking after me during the battle with Weil and Neo Arcadia, there was no official record anywhere that I actually existed. So when the Equality Laws were passed, Ciel managed to keep me from getting altered. Instead, she modified my body so that I looked this." Prairie waved an arm over herself. "I changed my name to Prairie, and the little orphan girl known as Alouette simply disappeared."

"So you're still a pure reploid, then?"

"Yup. Don't tell anyone though, they might start getting suspicious, or jealous."

"Jealous?"

Prairie sighed. "Regardless of whether they're human or reploid, people can be very strange sometimes. Right now, you and I are the only ones on the entire planet who don't have predetermined lifespans - a fact which would upset some people. Not everyone agrees with the Equality Laws, even if they do obey them.

"Anyway, as an added side effect to the whole situation, Legion has no record of me on their database. According to them, Fleuve is in charge of the Guardians, and I don't even exist."

"That sounds...convenient."

"It is. Everyone within the Guardians knows me as Ciel's sister, and knows that I'm the one in charge. I'm not naive enough to think that nobody in the whole world has ever heard of Prairie of the Guardians, but nobody really has any idea of who I am, or what I'm responsible for."

"Very clever," Zero responded, looking down at Prairie with a new respect. "You've changed. I never would have thought that little girl from the Resistance base would become what you are now."

"I had a good role model," she responded, smiling up at him. "Ciel changed a lot too, while you were gone." Then she looked away as the smile left her features. "She never forgot about you, though. Not even after two hundred years...

"After you left, Sis tried so hard to keep the peace between reploids and humans. There were several times when it really looked hopeless, but whenever things got really bad, she'd always go outside and look up at the stars. She never said anything, but I knew she was thinking of you. No matter how bad things were, you always gave her the strength to go on.

"I tried to help her as best I could, but in the end it was always Ciel who ended up helping me more than I helped her. Whenever I was ready to give up, she'd take me by the shoulders and look me straight in the eyes. She'd tell me not to worry, that everything would be all right, and that I just had to believe in her.

"I never really understood what she meant, but it still made me feel better to know that even if things fell apart, Sis would still look after me."

Prairie's voice fell to a whisper as she continued. "After she was gone too, I really was alone for the first time in my life. Nobody really knew who I was, and I didn't have anyone to lean on when things got bad.

"So whenever I was ready to give up, I did what Sis did and went out to look up at the stars. I thought about everything she'd accomplished while she was alive, and how she never gave up on what she believed in. I also thought of you, how brave you always were, ready to take on any challenge. Whenever I wanted to run away, I just thought to myself, 'what would Zero think of you if you gave up now?' The thought of letting you down when you fought so hard to give us everything we had always gave me the strength to keep going, even when I felt like I was completely helpless to do anything."

As Prairie stopped talking for a moment, Zero halted his descent on a rock outcropping. He felt like he should say something, but he couldn't think of anything appropriate. "Prairie, I..."

"I never found out who created me," Prairie interrupted, not noticing that Zero had tried to speak. "You, Ciel, and the Resistance were the only things in my life I could ever call a 'family'." She looked up at him and Zero saw that she was smiling again, tears forming in eyes. "But if I could have anyone in the world to call my parents, I can't think of anyone who could have done a better job than you and Ciel." Then she hugged him fiercely and said, "thank you, Zero."

Zero simply stood there for a moment, then returned the embrace. "I'm glad you feel that way, Alouette," he said, "and I'm very proud of everything you and Ciel did while I was gone."

They stood there enjoying the closeness for a few more moments before the little orphan girl Alouette turned back into Guardian Commander Prairie, pushing herself away from Zero's chest again. "Sorry for getting all mushy all of a sudden," she said, sounding slightly embarrassed. "It's just that I've wanted to tell you that for so long, and now that you're back, I wanted to say it while I still had the chance."

Zero smiled and was about to reply when his communicator crackled to life. "Zero, you there?" Vent's voice said.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"We've reached bottom about five hundred meters down," he informed Zero.

Zero's systems indicated he and Prairie still had another hundred meters to go. "Copy that, we're almost there." He cut off the transmission and turned to Prairie. "So, if you're still a full reploid, why do I need to carry you down this shaft?"

"You don't," Prairie said, patting him on the cheek. "I just needed a chance to talk to you alone before things got crazy again, and this seemed like the best way to go about it." She took her arms from around his neck and hopped down onto the ledge beside him.

"Well I didn't say I minded," Zero began, but Prairie glared at him, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"The Commander of the Guardians must keep her dignity," she said with mock indignation in her voice, then started to make her own way down the elevator shaft.

In no position to argue with her, Zero simply shrugged and started down after her.

* * *

Author's Note

So, a dialogue-heavy chapter that explains a little bit of background. Now the reason why our heroes escaped into the mine has been revealed, but the question remains: why did they have to escape there to begin with? And what happened in Legion that everyone's so worried about? Hmm...you'll just have to stick around to find out ;).

For those of you hoping for some more fighting - sorry. Stay tuned, though :).

Canonical Notes

This section is pretty long this time around since this chapter has a lot to do with canon. If you don't care, don't read this part.

So, I pretty much made up most of the events that Prairie talks about happening before the first ZX game, because Inti and Capcom refuse to be clear on just about anything -_-. If you don't think some of the stuff revealed here is true...too bad! It's called creative license, and I'm taking plenty of it :). Hopefully even if you think things happened a different way you're willing to roll with me on this - it makes for a good story, at least. I spent a lot of time trying to work things out so they'd be believable, so try and work with me a bit here.

I didn't pull those years Prairie mentioned out of nowhere. To explain a bit, here's my estimated timeline of events:

21XX - Maverick Wars (X series)  
220X - Megaman X Command Mission  
220X-22XX - Elf Wars  
229X - Megaman Zero series takes place over a period of approximately two years  
2305 - Ciel transfers into reploid body  
2307 - Legion government formed  
2308 - Equality Laws are passed by Legion  
24XX - Events of ZX take place  
24XX + 4 years, 8 months - events of ZXA

The exact date this story is taking place will be revealed in later parts :). You might be able to figure it out already - it's not something I'm trying to hide, there just hasn't been a reason for any of the characters to comment on it yet.

So, I have pretty much no sources to go on other than the centuries things take place in, so a lot of that is pure conjecture and creativity. Overall, exact dates aren't really important, I just needed something to write about, so don't get too hung up on it.

One thing I've never been able to figure out is how long it was between when Model W was found, when Sis/Ciel disappeared, and when the events of ZX take place. If anyone's got some ideas (with evidence) they'd like to present me, I'm all ears.

Also, I know there's nothing that definitively says Prairie is Alouette and that her Sis was Ciel, but there's enough implication in the in-game graphics and dialogue that I decided that's how it's going to be in my story. Author powers, hooooo!

Oh, one other thing. I noticed that I got my names backwards. In the ZX series, the blue mavericks that resemble X are called Galleons. I was calling them Pantheons, which is the Zero series name for them. I replaced them in my own copy and I'll edit previous chapters to reflect it later, but I thought I should mention that I know it's wrong and I've already caught it myself before anyone corrects me on it.

And now, I leave you with this one outtake, which explains why you haven't heard Model A say anything the entire story. Until next time, enjoy!

* * *

Outtake

_ Sensing that Vent didn't want to talk about it any further, Ashe simply nodded, then opened her palm to look at Model A. "You've been awfully quiet. What's gotten into you?"_

Model A: The author forgot about me.

Author: H-hey, shut up! That's supposed to be a secret!

Model A: Well you won't give me any lines in the script, so where else am I supposed to talk? I have feelings too, you know!


	6. Part 6: Escape

Part 6: Escape

Zero reached the bottom of the elevator shaft just as Prairie moved out of the way. Peering through the doorway, Zero could see only darkness inside. "Vent? Ashe? You in there?" he asked aloud.

"YEAH, WE'RE HERE," a monotone male voice replied loudly from somewhere to the left. "WATCH YOUR STEP, IT'S NOT A VERY WIDE HALLWAY."

"Are you sure it's okay for you to be using A-Trans when you're so injured?" Prairie asked as she went to a control panel beside the doorway.

"ANYTHING IS SAFER THAN BEING CARRIED BY VENT, HE ALMOST DROPPED ME AT LEAST SEVEN TIMES."

"I did not," Vent said indignantly, "and even if I did, you deserve it for trying to distract me."

"There we go," Prairie said as a row of lights embedded in the ceiling above sprung to life, revealing Vent and the Model P Mega Man, Siarnaq, standing a short distance down the hallway. "The generator on this level still seems to be functioning."

"GOOD, I HATE THE SOUND OF THIS GUY'S VOICE." There was a brief flash of light and Siarnaq was abruptly replaced by the Megamerged form of Ashe. "Much better. Now, where are we going?" All three of them turned to Prairie.

"At the end of this tunnel there should be a hidden door. Since the generator is still working I should be able to open it easily. There should still be a transerver inside that we can use to transport back to Guardian Base."

"Good," said Zero. "We need to get out of here quickly, it won't take them long to figure out where we went. Vent, you lead while I bring up the rear. Prairie, stay close to Vent and give him directions. Let's move out." He left unsaid that such a formation would place the injured Ashe in the most defensible position.

The tunnel was quite narrow, forcing the four companions to walk single file. Another mine cart track ran down the center of the passage, branching off down different tunnel paths as they passed by. It would have been very easy to get lost down here, Zero remarked to himself, but Prairie didn't hesitate as she lead the group down the maze of tunnels with confidence.

With little else to do, Zero found himself studying Ashe as she trudged down the tunnel in front of him. Although he'd known that Model A existed, he hadn't been able to figure out who had been used as a basis for it using only the memories he'd gained from Model Z. Now that he'd seen Ashe in full armor with her two plasma guns, the resemblance was uncanny.

"What are you looking at?" a voice said. At first Zero thought it was Ashe who was speaking, but when she turned around angrily and said, "Why are you staring at me?" he realized it had been her biometal.

"Sorry," Zero said casually, though he was chuckling inside. "I was just noticing that when you're Megamerged with Model A you look like someone I used to know." _Axl always was rather feminine, anyway._

Ashe was about to respond when the biometal piped up again. "That doesn't mean you can just sit there and stare at me. It's not very polite!"

"You act a lot like him, too."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!"

"Model A, hush!" Ashe said, then looked at Zero again. Her eyes narrowed as she carefully studied his face. "Was this person...a friend?" she asked.

"Yes," Zero replied, thinking back on the times he and X had spend with Axl, "though I didn't always think so at the time. He was...someone who just wanted to do the right thing."

"Well, as long as he was a good person, I don't mind if he looks like me...even if it was a guy." She turned her attention forward again. "And you can look as much as you want, but don't even think about touching."

"Never dream of it," Zero responded dryly.

* * *

"Here it is," Prairie said as the tunnel abruptly opened up into a larger cavern. The walls were all bare rock with a few support beams holding up the low-hanging ceiling, which was a mere ten feet high. The whole area was still illuminated by the same kind of overhead lights as the rest of the tunnel system.

Prairie quickly approached the far wall of the cavern and started feeling around. "I know it's here somewhere," she said, slightly frustrated. "Sorry, it's been a while since I was last here and my memory's a little fuzzy."

"Isn't that a little...old-fashioned?" Ashe remarked, "a secret switch in a stone wall so we can access the secret cavern?"

"Maybe," Prairie responded as she flipped a hidden switch with a click, "but it worked, didn't it?" A small section of rock slid out from the wall face a few feet away, then rotated to reveal a small keypad. Prairie went over and tapped a few keys, then a voice spoke from the keypad.

"Voice authorization required," a robotic voice said. Prairie opened her mouth to respond, but to the surprise of everyone else, the voice that came out wasn't her own.

"Voiceprint Ciel Omega Zero, confirm."

While both Vent and Aile were confused at both the odd password and Prairie's altered voice, Zero's entire body went rigid. He was the only other one present who knew the significance of the phrase, as well as the voice that spoke it.

"Authorization confirmed, opening hatch."

Prairie sheepishly turned to look at Zero as a six-foot-high section of the rock wall slid inward to reveal a hidden chamber. "Sorry Zero. Sis knew she had to pick a password nobody else would have ever heard of."

Zero nodded tersely. "I understand."

Vent and Ashe simply looked at each other and shrugged - they no longer expected to ever understand what was going on.

Prairie led the way into the mysterious lab. Dust covered everything, as well as a few piles of rocks where geological shifts over the years had caused the ceiling to cave in. Prairie started up one of the mainframe consoles and was relieved to see that all of the lab's systems were still functioning despite the condition of the cave.

"Looks like the data collection is still running okay. I should be able to copy most of the information onto some of these disks lying around, then we can analyze it back at Guardian Base."

"That's great Prairie, but I thought we came down here so that we could escape?" Ashe asked.

"Yes, there's a transerver in the back that we can use to get out. Nobody but me knows it's here and it's not part of any networks so they can't have blocked it."

"Prairie, we need to get out of here," Vent said urgently. "We don't have time to be worrying about whatever information is stored on these ancient databases."

"But it could help us figure out what happened in Legion!" Prairie protested. "It shouldn't take too long to transfer it all to disks." She looked up at Zero, her eyes pleading. "Please?"

As much as he wanted to, Zero just couldn't say no. "Fine, but make it quick. We don't know when they're going to catch up with us."

"Thank you! I'll start right away!" And Prairie did just that.

"One of you get that transerver ready to go," Zero said to the other two. "I'm going to keep a lookout at the door."

"I'll do it. Ashe, you help Prairie."

"Got it." The four of them all broke up to do their assigned tasks. Zero silently took up his post at the entrance, listening for any sign of approaching mavericks.

"I'll set the generator to overload and tie it in to the transerver controls," he heard Prairie saying behind him, "so that when we use it to escape the generator will explode. We can't let any of those mavericks gain access to the data stored in these mainframes."

"It'll also keep them from tracking the transerver signal," Ashe said in agreement. "Where's the generator?"

"Right there," Prairie said, pointing at a large steel cylinder embedded in the wall. "Three seconds after the last of us transfers out of here everything in this whole room will be blown to bits."

"Sounds like a plan. How's the data transfer?" Zero asked from the doorway.

"Twenty-six percent," Prairie responded. "Should only take a little bit longer."

A few minutes passed by uneventfully before Zero heard a faint ring of metal on rock coming from down the tunnel. Straining his ears, he could hear the noise slowly getting louder - someone was running down the cart tracks.

"They're here," he shouted back into the lab.

"Eighty-nine percent!" Prairie said, "just another minute or two!"

"Tell Vent and Ashe to evacuate. I'll try and buy you some time." Zero left his post at the door to meet the oncoming maverick.

He didn't have long to wait. Just as he was passing the center point of the cavern a blue humanoid figure exited the tunnel opposite him. It was covered in blue armor, with a ponytail-like extrusion on top of it's head.

_The Model L Mega Man_, Zero's acquired memories told him.

The figure skidded to a halt as it noticed Zero obstructing his path. A long halberd materialized in his hands, which it pointed at Zero's chest.

"And who do you think you are, standing in my way?" The young man - for Zero could now tell it was a male - asked nonchalantly. "Don't you know who I am?"

Zero remained silent and simply returned the Chosen One's stare, refusing to back down. His objective was to stall for time - if this arrogant kid wanted to waste time asking pointless questions, Zero wasn't going to stop him.

Unfortunately, the Mega Man didn't want to waste time talking either. "Oh, all right then," he said after a few seconds. "My name's Thetis, and if you're going to get in my way, unfortunately I'll have to eliminate you." He crouched, ready to spring forward and attack. "Nothing personal, you understand."

Zero simply grunted. "If you asked your biometal, I think you might find that I'm not so easy to get rid of."

The boy paused for a moment. "Huh? What does my biometal have to do with this? Model L, what does he mean?"

"Just shut up and hit him," the disembodied voice of Model L said impatiently.

The boy shrugged, then began his attack. "Sounds good to me."

Zero easily parried the first swipe from the halberd, then dodged around the backhanded follow-up slash without too much trouble either. He decided to stay on the defensive while he learned his opponent's moves - he remembered everything that Leviathan could do, but he didn't know if becoming a biometal or Megamerging with this boy had affected her abilities. Considering the state he was currently in, he figured it was probably best not to take any chances. His only problem then was getting back to the transerver after Prairie finished downloading her data - there was no way this guy was going to let him just walk away.

As Zero dodged another flurry of halberd thrusts and slashes it became very obvious that Thetis wasn't nearly as good as he thought he was. The only thing keeping Zero from tearing him to pieces was the size of the halberd, which gave Thetis significantly more reach than Zero had with his Z-Saber. Unfortunately, Zero didn't think his current body would be fast enough to get inside the halberd's range without taking damage. If he only had his Z-Buster, or even his old Chain Rod, then...

"Zero!" Prairie yelled from the doorway, "I'm finished! Get out of there!" Then she vanished back into the lab.

"Oh, I don't think you'll be going anywhere," Thetis said with a smirk. "If I take you out, then when I go after them, they'll think I'm you."

Zero refused to rise to the bait. "I can see why Model L chose you. You're as arrogant as she is."

"Less talking, more fighting!" Model L said. Zero thought she actually sounded excited.

"Sorry, but this fight's over," Thetis said with a smirk. "Goodbye, whoever you are!"

Zero saw the blade of Thetis' halberd begin to pulse softly as it stored up energy. From his previous fights with Leviathan, he knew what would come next.

_Looks like my best chance to end this_. Zero stored power in his saber for a charged attack, then leapt through the air toward Thetis, his head scraping the ceiling of the tunnel.

"Too late!" Thetis yelled, sweeping his halberd down as he released the stored energy in the form of two ice dragons, their mouths full of supercooled, razor-sharp ice spikes - Leviathan's favorite attack.

Zero met the dragons as he descended towards the boy, easily dispatching them with his charged saber attack, as he always had in his previous duels with Leviathan.

"Got you!" Thetis yelled as he made a powerful backhanded upward slash back at Zero in an attempt to slice him vertically in two.

Instead of deflecting the attack as he could have easily done, Zero instead twisted his entire body sideways. He felt a brief flash of excruciating pain as the halberd connected with his shoulder, followed a split second later by his body crashing into the surprised Thetis.

The two tumbled along the cavern floor a short distance before eventually skidding to a halt with Zero on top. Before Thetis could blink an eye he saw the blade of Zero's green Z-Saber pointed directly at his neck.

Shocked, Thetis barely managed to stammer out, "but, I felt...I hit you, how did you..." Then his gaze fell on Zero's left arm - or rather, where his left arm had been. Now there was only a bunch of loose wires, cut cleanly where Thetis's halberd had cleaved through. He tried to find the remains of the arm, but all he could see was a small pile of blue metal fragments in a pile on the ground a short distance away - they vaguely resembled pieces of Galleon soldiers.

Zero's face was an unreadable mask, devoid of emotion. "You're dead," he said simply.

Thetis closed his eyes and waited for the final blow, but it never came. When he opened his eyes again, Zero got off his chest and deactivated his Z-Saber.

"Y-you aren't going to..."

"You're a human," Zero said with a sigh, "or as close to a human as it apparently gets these days. Killing humans isn't something I do. Leviathan, what's gotten in to you, giving your power to this kid?"

Thetis let out a scared squeak as he felt Model L break their biolink. In a flash of light he was left lying on his back on the floor of the cavern without his armor while Model L floated in the air in front of him.

"You moron!" she yelled down at her Chosen One, "I give you all that power and you STILL can't win? Even when he's already half-dead and using a body made of broken Galleons? Ugh! If I had a mouth, I'd spit on you, you pathetic excuse of a Mega Man!"

"Take it easy on the kid," Zero said, trying to calm the enraged biometal. "To be fair, I've had a bit more experience than him, and you work best underwater. It's not like I've never beaten you before."

"That doesn't make it any less unfair," Leviathan pouted. "And to answer your question, I gave him my power because sitting around in a lab being studied is boring. He seemed like he was going places." The pouting was suddenly replaced by rage once again. "Of course, as soon as I gave him that power, the first thing he does is start following around some red-bearded freak like a lapdog! Ugh! It makes me sick!"

"I'd be welcome to have you along," Zero said, extending his remaining hand, palm-up. "If nothing else, you can double Megamerge with Vent again and see some action that way."

"Hmph, I thought you'd never ask," the biometal replied, floating lazily over to land in Zero's hand. "I know it's just an excuse to get your cute little paws-er, paw- on me, but I guess I'll go along with it for now," she said playfully.

Zero rolled his eyes, then headed for the door of the lab.

"B-but..." Thetis stuttered, "what...what about the ocean...you said..."

Model L was instantly out of Zero's palm again, staring daggers at her scorned Chosen, who scooted back a foot.

"Stop being so naive and selfish. It's meaningless to protect the ocean if you don't protect the world around it, which is what the people you've been sent to kill are trying to do," she lectured. "You must care for the whole, not just the parts that suit you." Having said her piece, she floated back into Zero's waiting palm.

"You're a good kid," Zero said as he walked toward the lab, "but you might want to reconsider which side you're on." He briefly turned back to look at the former Mega Man, who was still sitting on the ground in shock. "If you ever change your mind, you know how to find us." Then he disappeared into the lab interior.

* * *

Zero chuckled as he looked down at the blue biometal in his palm, then winced as his arm socket sent out a few stray sparks.

"I always knew you were gutsy, but that little move you pulled was pretty reckless, even for you," Model L said.

"Yeah, well, what can I say," Zero said with a one-shouldered shrug, "it's a lot easier to stare death in the face when you see it the second time."

"I wouldn't have let him kill you, you know," Model L quietly. "I just wanted to win for once, then I was going to come with you anyway. I was just going along with that kid until I found someone who wasn't so...naive."

`"You're okay with just changing sides like that?" he asked.

"It's been a long time, Zero - people change," the biometal replied solemnly. "When you've been traded around like some sort of commodity for as long as we biometals have, helpless to choose your own path in life, you stop caring about things like loyalty."

"Why'd you bother coming with me, then?"

"Because I still care about winning, and when you're around, you always seem to come out on top."

Zero chuckled again as he stepped on the transerver pad. "I don't think you've changed as much as you think," he said as he pressed the transmit button, then disappeared in a blur of light.

* * *

Thetis simply stared at the empty doorway for a few seconds, trying to process what had just happened. In the space of a few minutes he'd gone from one of the most powerful people on the planet, the Model L Mega Man, to being just a normal, unremarkable humanoid. Somewhere in his confused mind, he could only concentrate on one thing: that red...thing...was about to leave with his biometal.

"Come back," Thetis said to himself as he finally picked himself up off the ground, then headed for the doorway that the strange fighter had disappeared through. "You have to come back. Please, Model L, I need-"

A thunderous explosion from within the doorway threw him backward across the cavern, skidding to a halt near the tunnel entrance. Knocked senseless for a moment, Thetis finally gathered his wits enough to pull himself back to his feet. In front of him he could see the other side of the cavern wall had been blown to pieces - nothing remained of the doorway his biometal and the strange red figure had entered.

As Thetis heard the approach of his maverick force echoing down the tunnel behind him, he only knew one thing for sure: he was going to have one hell of a time explaining himself.

* * *

Author's Note

After thinking about it a little, I decided that this part and the last part should have been together. So I went and got this one cleaned up and here it is.

Since my last author's note was stupidly large I'll keep this one nice and short. Until next time :).


	7. Part 7: Reunion

Part 7: Reunion

Prairie's eyes snapped open as soon as her transfer completed. Taking a quick glance around the transfer room she was greeted by the sight of Fleuve and four other Guardian soldiers, all with rifles pointed at her chest. Vent was also standing off to one side, though he was no longer Megamerged.

"Commander Prairie transfer confirmed," Gardenia's voice said over the comm system, "preparing to scramble transerver signal."

"No!" Prairie ran to the comm panel beside the door and mashed the talk button. "Gardenia no! There's one more coming through!"

"Affirmative, canceling scramble order. Let me know when you're ready, ma'am."

A few tense moments passed as the Guardians waited, keeping their rifles trained on the transerver in case something unexpected came through.

"Vent, where did Ashe go?" Prairie said when she noticed the female Hunter was missing from the room.

"She collapsed as soon as her transfer was complete. Rose was here waiting for us and as soon as I assured her that the rest of us were okay she rushed her off to the infirmary."

"Oh, good. I'm sure she'll be okay then."

"Excuse me, Commander," Fleuve interrupted politely, "but who, may I ask, are we waiting for? We only sent-"

"Incoming transfer," Gardenia's voice echoed over the comm system again. There was a brief pause, then she continued with a note of alarm in her voice. "I'm detecting traces of Galleon and biometal data, prepare to engage-"

"No!" Prairie shouted frantically. "That's him!"

"What?!" Fleuve said, his confusion reflected in the faces of the other four Guardians. "Prairie, if there are Galleons coming through that transerver, then-"

"It's not Galleons!" It's-" Prairie paused as the transerver activated, then breathed a sigh of relief when Zero appeared on the pad in a flash of light. She pressed on the comm pad. "Gardenia, scramble the transerver signal, please."

"Already did ma'am. Figured if that wasn't your friend then he wasn't coming. Everything turn out all right down there?"

"Yes, we're fine, thank--oh!" Prairie exclaimed as she saw Zero's arm - or lack thereof - and rushed over to investigate. "What happened?!"

"I was in a hurry and got a little reckless," the red reploid said, avoiding the question. "Did we make a clean escape? Where's Ashe and Model A?" Zero glanced around the room, assessing the situation.

"We got away fine, we just scrambled the transerver signal so nobody can track us. Ashe has already been taken to the infirmary. Which is exactly where you're going!"

"No point," Zero said. "Even if this body were worth repairing, I don't think anyone here would know how."

"Oh, right," Prairie said, slightly embarrassed, "I'd forgotten about...that. Well, if it hurts, maybe we can at least..."

"I've already cut power to the receptors in that shoulder, I don't really feel much of anything there now." Zero grimaced. "Hurt like hell when it came off, though."

Fleuve abruptly interrupted their exchange. "Excuse me, but are you a reploid?"

Zero stared at the diminutive scientist for a moment, then sighed. "That's rather...complicated."

Fleuve simply raised an eyebrow in curiosity, then turned to Prairie and said, "I think a debriefing is in order."

"Yes, good idea," Prairie nodded. She went back to the comm panel and was about to push the talk button when she realized she'd left the signal open from before. "Oh, ah, Gardenia, could you..."

"Yes ma'am, I'll inform the crew to meet you in the briefing room."

"Ah, thank you," Prairie said, then added, "and please set a course for Innerpeace. Stay away from any Legion ships you detect - if any of them want to talk, inform me before responding."

"Yes ma'am," Gardenia replied, needing no further explanation - her job was to follow orders, not question them.

Prairie turned to Vent. "Are you up for this right now? You're injured, we could always bring you up to speed after Muguet's had a look at you and you've gotten some rest."

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for the world," Vent grinned. "Ashe is going to be pretty angry if we do it without her, though."

"We'll deal with her when the time comes," Prairie said firmly, though inside she was immensely relieved that the girl was being taken care of.

"Well then, let's go," Fleuve said, leading the way out of the transfer room, followed closely by Prairie.

As Zero walked by Vent he dropped something into the young man's palm. "I think you lost this," he said, then continued out the door.

"What...?" Vent opened his palm and saw the shining form of Model L in his palm.

"Hello again, young man," the biometal said. "It's good to see you're still in one piece. I sort of liked you."

"Model L! What are you doing here?" "This team's more fun than the other one," the biometal responded. Vent didn't really believe that was the only reason, but he didn't have time to press the issue.

"Well, I'm glad you came back," Vent said as he pocketed the biometal and hurried out the door to catch up with the rest of the group.

"So am I," the biometal said, completely unheard in the fabric of Vent's clothes.

* * *

After catching up to everyone else, Vent moved up and tapped Fleuve on the shoulder. "Hey Fleuve, any idea where-"

"She's probably asleep. She took the night watch so she could brood quietly on the landing deck by herself after I had her confined to her cabin - the girl went completely hysterical when we lost contact with Legion. Quite a load of nonsense, really. I just forced her to retire an hour ago so I doubt she'll be up anytime-"

"VENT!"

Vent barely had time to turn to face the source of the voice before he was sent flying into the side of the corridor by Aile's full-body tackle.

"Ow!" Vent was about to form a rebuke until he got a good look at the girl's eyes, ringed from lack of sleep, and tinged with red from crying.

"Vent, oh thank god you're all right! I was so worried, I-oh, you're hurt! Vent, what happened? Are you okay?" Aile's voice alternated rapidly between extreme relief and worry as she looked him over, checking out his injuries herself.

"I was fine until you knocked my head into the wall just now..."

"What the hell did you think you were doing, going out on a mission without even telling me?" the girl demanded with an immediate mood swing, ignoring Vent's response completely.

"Aile, I think you should..." Vent tried to interrupt, but the girl continued on.

"Then you go and drop off the radar and get me all worried-"

"Aile..."

"-I mean, what the hell am I supposed to think, you and Prairie running off with some Hunter girl-"

"Aile!"

"-you could have gotten injured or captured or killed and there'd be no way for me to-" "AILE!"

"WHAT?!"

Vent waved his arm, indicating their current company. "Don't you think there could be a better time for this?"

Aile looked up to see the all of the Guardians smiling good-naturedly at the two of them. Prairie was trying her best not to giggle but the mirth dancing in her eyes gave her away. Even Zero couldn't help but grin. The only one who didn't react at all was Fleuve, who thought the whole thing was a rather inefficient use of time, indeed.

"Oh no! I'm sorry Prair-I mean, Commander!" Aile stammered out as she got off Vent's chest, fiddled with her wrinkled uniform - it was clear she'd been sleeping in it, and for how long was anyone's guess - and bowed her head apologetically. "It's just, I heard the briefing message and I thought it might be about Vent and-"

"It's okay Aile, calm down," Prairie said, still suppressing the urge to giggle. She turned to look at Vent as he picked himself up off the floor. "Vent, you may be all right, but clearly your sister is not. Why don't you two go have a talk and come to the briefing a bit later?"

"Thanks Prairie," Vent said, an embarrassed look on his face. "C'mon Sis, let's go." He grabbed Aile by the elbow and pulled her back down the hall she'd just come bolting down. Even before they were out of sight everyone could hear Aile starting to fuss over her brother again.

Unable to contain themselves any longer, Prairie and the rest of the Guardians all burst out laughing. When she'd finally regained her composure, Prairie said to Zero, "it certainly has gotten a lot more interesting on board since we took those two on." She then continued down the hallway to the briefing room.

Zero began to follow, then noticed the tiny form of Model X floating up to him. He opened his palm and Model X settled gently inside.

"I think they need some time alone," was all the biometal said.

To which Zero remarked, "you may not be the real X, but you're pretty damned close."

* * *

"Are you sure you're all right?" Aile said, still checking over her sibling even as they entered the cabin they shared together.

"Yeah, I'm fine, seriously, I was kidding about the head bit," Vent replied as his sister pushed him down onto the bottom - Aile's - bunk. "I got a little more beat up than usual, but it's nothing a quick trip to the infirmary and a good night's sleep won't fix."

"Which is exactly where you'll be going right after that briefing!"

"Yeah, and if I'm lucky, Muguet will be too busy with Ashe to deal with me, so I'll get to see Rose instead," Vent said as a guilty smile crept across his face. It was well-known among the ship's crew that the motherly Muguet could be rather...overbearing, at times, whereas Rose was quiet and shy. Her good looks didn't hurt matters any, either.

"Who is that Ashe girl, anyway?" Aile asked. "I remember you mentioning her before, but I can't remember where."

"She's Model A's biomatch, from the Hunter's Guild. The one I told you I met down in the quarry near Legion when I went after that Model W fragment, remember? Actually, come to think of it, you saw her when she came on board during the attack on the Ouroboros. Red and blue armor, off-white ponytail, dual plasma pistols?"

"Oh yeah, I remember her now," Aile said thoughtfully, "the one you brought back on your shoulder before that monstrosity sank back into the ocean."

"That's the one," Vent confirmed. "She's a tough one, no doubt about it. I bet she'll be back on her feet in a day at the most."

"Well, she seemed like a good person, so I'm glad she's okay." Then Aile had another sleep-deprived moodswing, going from relieved to angry in the blink of an eye. "Which is far from what _you're _going to be if you don't have a decent excuse for disappearing on me like that!"

"Sorry," Vent said as he raised his hands in defense, "it wasn't supposed to be anything big. I was just escorting Prairie to Legion so she could discuss Albert and the Ouroboros with Master Thomas and Master Mikhail. Ashe volunteered to come with us, probably from lack of anything better to do with herself. With Albert and the Model W's gone I really didn't think anything dangerous would happen - I mean, it's Legion headquarters. If that's not safe then what is, right?"

"I guess," Aile said, her anger slowly fading away, replaced by a creeping sadness. "It's just...at first I was angry at you for not telling me you were leaving. But we aren't kids anymore, I told myself, you don't have to check in with me before you go out on missions.

"When we lost contact with you I started to worry, but I thought, maybe just your communicator was broken, or the Guardian Base was having difficulties, or something..." Aile's voice began to waver as emotions bubbled to the surface. Vent tried to interrupt and calm her down, but to no avail. It was like she'd broken down a barrier inside herself, and now she couldn't stop the the words from pouring out.

"Marguerite intercepted a few transmissions from inside Legion, something about mavericks attacking. We only got a few fragments before communications with Legion shut off completely. Then we picked up energy emissions indicating weapons discharge, and we didn't know what was going on. We still couldn't raise you on any frequency, and then the fires started..."

Aile collapsed into her brother's lap as her voice finally broke. "I was so worried, I didn't know what to do. I think I kind of lost it, because the next thing I remember is waking up in my cabin with Silure at the door with orders to keep me inside until I calmed down. I just couldn't stop thinking that something had happened to you, that I'd never seen you again, that you were gone, and I..."

"Aile..." Vent said softly as he tightly embraced his sister, stroking her long hair. "It's okay, I'm back now. I'm not going anywhere, I promise," he soothed.

"I felt so helpless, I knew you were down there, and you were in trouble, but there was nothing..." Tears flowed freely down Aile's face as she looked up at her brother, something Vent hadn't seen in over four years. "I lost Giro to them, and I thought that now I'd lost you too. I thought you'd left me all alone, and I..." She buried her face in Vent's chest as sobs wracked her body. "I don't want to be alone!" she cried.

Vent held his sister close as she let out all the pain she'd been holding in. He knew how much Giro had meant to his sister. Over the years since his death Vent had slowly dealt with his loss and moved on. However, his sister's feelings for Giro had gone much deeper than Vent's own, and she still felt the pain of his death quite strongly. Her acute memory of losing a loved one, combined with the terror of losing her only remaining family, while being helpless to do anything about it, had been understandably too much for her to handle with her usual calm and carefree attitude.

The two siblings remained on the bunk for a time in silence, Vent comforting his distressed sister while Aile simply wanted to feel her brother's presence again and assure herself that he really had come back to her. Finally, the girl heaved a heavy sigh and disentangled herself from her brother, sitting down on the bed beside him.

"I want to yell at you and make you promise not to do something stupid like taking on an entire horde of mavericks by yourself again, but I know it won't do any good," Aile said as she wiped her eyes and tried to get her emotions back under control.

"You're probably right," Vent agreed with a chuckle.

"Well then, promise me that next time you _do _feel like doing something that stupid, you at least _tell _me first so I can come pull your butt out of the fire before you get burned."

"Only if you make me the same promise," Vent replied seriously, looking his sister straight in the eye.

Their gazes locked for a second, the emotions in their eyes saying more than they could ever find the words for, mentally reaffirming their bond as brother and sister. Though they'd been taken in and cared for by the Guardians, each was still the only family the other had left. Vent knew he would feel the same as Aile had if their situations had been reversed.

Then Aile was back to her old self, indignantly crossing her arms and arching her back, nose held high in the air, eyes closed. "I don't have to. Unlike _some_ people, I don't do stupid things," she said, her tone indicating that such a thing should have been obvious.

Vent laughed at her antics - it relieved him to see some of his sister's spirit returning already. "Of course not, whatever gave me that idea."

Aile cracked an eye open to look at him sideways. "So, are you going to explain exactly what happened down there or not?" Her tone implied that it wasn't really a question.

"I will, but after the briefing. Right now you need to get back to sleep. Fleuve told me you-"

"Ooooh no," Aile said as she jumped up from the bed. "If you can beat up mavericks for a whole day and still have enough energy to debrief the entire ship's crew, then so do I," she informed him.

Vent sighed - there was no arguing with her when she got like this. "All right then, don't go to sleep, but I need to get going to that briefing. I'll tell you all about it when I get back." He got up and headed for the door.

"Are you crazy?" Aile said as she grabbed onto his arm with both of hers. "I just got you back from the dead, there's no way I'm letting you out of my sight. Since we missed the start of the briefing you'll just have to tell me the important bits on the way there."

"All right then. It went kind of like this..."

Forgotten in the folds of Vent's pockets, Model L remained silent as the two siblings had their little heartfelt exchange. She hadn't really meant to eavesdrop but she'd gotten stuck in the fabric somewhere along the way and by the time she was able to escape, she decided it would be less awkward if she just stayed where she was for the time being.

_Is this what Zero and Master X see in them?_ Model L wondered to herself. In her previous life as one of Neo Arcadia's Four Generals she had never been programmed to feel emotions like love and compassion - she was capable of them, but she didn't really understand them. The closest thing she had to a family were the other Generals, having all been designed based on Master X. But their relationships were built more on a foundation of respect for each other's power than any kind of love.

_All we ever cared about was defeating the enemy, winning the next battle, and protecting Master X's dream - Neo Arcadia, a place where humans and reploids lived together in peace. Could it be that we failed to see what exactly it was that we were protecting? Master X, how painful it must have been for you to watch as we failed to see the wondrous world you strived to create right in front of us. A world full of love and freedom, where children like these are free to live and dream..._

Fairy Leviathan, formerly one of Neo Arcadia's Four Generals and leader of the great Meikai army, had a great many things to think about as she continued to sit silently at the bottom of Vent's pocket, temporarily forgotten.

* * *

Author's Note

Heh, so, Aile makes her appearance. In my world, the events of ZX happened *slightly* differently than they did in the game. It wouldn't be worth writing an entire fic just to show how I think that one thing would change, and it's not really necessary for this story, either. So just use your imagination a little and work with me.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, "but if Vent can Megamerge with Model X/Z, doesn't that mean Aile can too?" Hm...an interesting question. Stay tuned to find out how that works out ;).

That's all for now. Coming up next: more fight scenes.

Canonical Notes

Only thing to talk about here is the fact that Aile and Vent coexist, and are siblings. There's various pieces of evidence that they both exist in the game world, but the sibling bit is pure creativity on my part, because it's more fun to write that way. In my version of ZX, both Vent and Aile were with their mother at the amusement park, were both rescued by Giro, and both became members of Giro Express. The stuff that happens after that requires a bit more creativity and description than I'm going to put here - it's also pretty irrelevant to the current plot. If there's any details needed I'll explain them during the course of the events in the plot.


	8. Part 8: Debriefing 1

Part 8: Debriefing

Prairie sat patiently at her appointed space at the head of the table as the crew of the Guardian Base slowly filed in the doors. Zero sat to her immediate right, with Fleuve taking his traditional spot on her left. There were plenty of other chairs down the sides of the large table that spanned the entire room, but by the time everyone was inside they were forced to stand crammed together along the walls - the room hadn't been built with the intention of housing the entire crew simultaneously. Several monitors hung from the ceiling on mountings around the room, ready to display any information that may be relevant to whatever meeting was taking place at the time.

As the room became increasingly crowded Prairie caught various snippets of the hushed conversations taking place around the table. Most of them were guesses on what the briefing was about - Prairie was well-liked as a Commander, and news of her mysterious disappearance had quickly spread throughout the ship, not to mention the loss of Vent and the two biometals. Others were wondering who the mysterious figure sitting beside Prairie was, saying that he sort of resembled Model Z, but what happened to his arm?

Seeing the flow of people entering the room stop, Prairie motioned for Fleuve to begin the meeting. He was much better at getting a crowd's attention than she was.

"_Could I have your attention please! Attention!"_ the little man yelled over the murmur of the crowd. Despite his diminutive stature, Fleuve could put out an incredible amount of volume when he wanted to. As the conversations around the room died off he motioned for Prairie to proceed.

"Thank you, Fleuve." Prairie tapped a button on top of the meeting table and the faces of Gardenia, Tulip, and Marguerite all appeared on one of the monitors on the wall. "Someone has to keep the ship moving, but I need you three to hear this too."

"Yes ma'am. I think we're all capable of paying attention to more than one thing at a time by now," Tulip replied with a good-natured smile.

Prairie returned the look, then took a moment to survey the faces of the people gathered in the room, meeting the eyes of each Guardian present. A quick tally in her head assured her that everyone was here, with the exception of Vent and Aile, which was to be expected. Vent could fill Aile in on everything she needed to hear later.

"I know you all have questions about everything that's been happening on board these past few hours. It's been a very confusing time for everyone. Hopefully over the next few minutes I'll be able to answer most of your questions. I called all of you here because it's very important that every single one of you understands the severity of the situation and hears what I - and our new companion - have to say." She made a brief gesture toward Zero, who nodded his head, then continued.

"What we're going to tell you here is going to be very confusing. You may also be somewhat disturbed. I ask that you all please try to refrain from making comments or asking questions until the end of the briefing.

"Now, I'd like to begin by having Fleuve review the facts as are currently known, to put to rest all of the rumors that have undoubtedly been flying through the ship. Fleuve?"

As the sub-Commander of the Guardians began delivering his report, Zero was careful to keep his expression neutral as he regarded Prairie with an even deeper respect.

_Impressive. She handles her people so easily, and they have such a deep respect for her that they'll obey any order she gives them. She's not just a Commander in name - she leads these people. Ciel trained her successor well. Alouette has definitely grown up, in more ways than one._

"At 2300 hours last night, Commander Prairie transferred to Hunter's Base, accompanied by Guardian Vent and his two biometals, Model X and Model Z," Fleuve began in the typical no-nonsense tone he always adopted when talking business. "There they planned to rendezvous with Hunter Ashe and then proceed to take a bullet train to Legion, which was scheduled to leave at midnight. Their objective was to meet with the remaining two members of the Sage Trinity, Masters Thomas and Mikhail, about the events surrounding Albert and the Ouroboros.

"At approximately 0058 hours Guardian Base stopped receiving signals from Prairie's communications unit without any explanation. Attempts to contact Guardian Vent or the Hunter Ashe also failed. Upon further investigation it was determined that communications were being jammed, not just for the Guardian Base, but for the entire central Legion area."

There were several unexpected gasps and hushed whispers at this information - clearly Fleuve hadn't revealed exactly how serious the situation had been at the time.

"It was decided that a team should be sent to investigate the situation and determine the status of Commander Prairie and her team. Attempting to connect to a transerver within the blackout area would be too dangerous, so we contacted Hunter's Base and requested the use their transerver again. They not only agreed to allow us to use their camp as a staging area, but upon explaining the situation, several of them volunteered to join the Guardian team.

"At 0313 hours fourteen Guardian soldiers transferred down to Hunter's Base, where they joined forces with six Hunter volunteers. The group headed for the bullet train for transport to Legion; however, upon their arrival they were notified that all transit to and from central Legion had been delayed indefinitely, with no explanation given.

"Rather than walk the distance to Legion, a trip of at least eight hours, the Guardian forces returned to the base while we continued our attempts to contact the Commander. It was during this time that we picked up heavy weapons fire from the streets of Legion, as well as a large number of maverick signals. After an analysis of the damage patterns we determined that the source of the maverick outbreak was Legion Headquarters. The status of Master Thomas and Master Mikhail is, at this point in time, still unknown.

"At 0417 hours Tulip intercepted a hacking attempt on our transerver. Thankfully she thwarted their efforts before they could decode our transfer signals. She has been unsuccessful in tracking down the source of the hacking attempt, but she did determine that whoever it was, they were trying to transmit something to the Guardian Base. In light of this attack I ordered four Guardian soldiers to be posted inside the transerver room at all times as a precautionary measure.

"At 0717 hours the transerver was activated remotely from an unknown origin using Guardian Vent's ID tag. Shortly afterward, Hunter Ashe returned to the ship in critical condition with Model A - she is currently resting in the capable hands of Muguet in the infirmary, who says she will make a full recovery shortly. Vent, Prairie, and their companion followed shortly afterward."

Everyone was silent as Fleuve finished his report. There had been rumors floating around the ship about what was going on, but nobody had seemed to know for sure. Now that they knew, the question was, what did it mean?

"Thank you Fleuve," Prairie said with a smile. Fleuve was always incredibly concise and impartial in his reports - she was amazed that he'd been able to recall the events of the previous night with such accuracy on such short notice, and under pressure. At that moment she was glad she had such a competent humanoid as her second-in-command.

"Well, now that you all know what happened up here, I'll tell you about what happened after we lost contact with the base."

* * *

"What do you mean you can't get a signal?" Ashe said to Vent. "There's no way we're out of range." She turned on her own communicator. "Hunter Base, this is Ashe. Can anyone hear me? Hello?"

"I can't raise Guardian Base either," Prairie said as she turned off her communicator. "What's going on?"

"Maybe there's just some interference or something?" Vent suggested, though he didn't really believe it himself. What kind of interference could block out the Guardian Base communications array?

"Well, the quickest way to figure out what's going on would be to see the Sages," Prairie suggested. Her companions both agreed, though Ashe did so reluctantly.

"I still don't like it," she said, a troubled look on her features.

"It took us over an hour to get all way over here, and we're almost at Legion HQ. Do you really want to turn back now?" Vent said.

"I guess not," the girl conceded, though she checked to make sure her plasma pistol was handy, and that Model A was within easy reach. "Let's go, then."

As they continued down the street, Vent glanced across the street and saw a nearby public display terminal, its screen filled with static. People were gathered on the street below the screen and discussing what the problem could be.

"Guess we aren't the only ones having issues with broadcasting," Vent said. "Looks like nobody in Legion can get any communications in or out."

"I'm really starting to not like this," Ashe said.

The static signal was abruptly replaced by a blue screen, upon which a text message began to scroll across. Vent read it aloud.

"Attention. This is a message from Legion Headquarters. We are currently experiencing issues with our communications networks. Please remain calm. We are doing our best to rectify the situation. Please refrain from inter-sector travel until the situation has been resolved. Thank you." Vent paused a few seconds before adding, "it just repeats from there."

"Sounds like a bunch of bunk to me," Ashe huffed, looking around for anything suspicious. "I could understand something like this happening closer to the Outer Lands, but at the heart of Legion? There's definitely something wrong here."

"If that message really did come from Legion HQ then that might be where the problem is," Prairie said, concern creeping into her voice. "If we go there, maybe we can do something to help out."

"I don't like it, but I think that's our best option at this point," Vent said reluctantly. "I'll bet the train's shut down now, anyway. There's no way we'd get far trying to walk ourselves out of here, that's for sure."

"All right, but let's keep our eyes open," Ashe agreed, checking her weapons were clear for the second time in as many minutes. "When you don't know what's coming, you've gotta be ready for anything."

"Right," Prairie nodded, then started in the direction Legion HQ again.

* * *

"I'll admit that it's been a while since I was last here, but doesn't this place seem to be awfully quiet for the government capital building?" Prairie asked as she glanced around.

"Yeah, last time I was here there crowds of people going everywhere," Ashe confirmed as she looked into the door of an empty security booth. "Even the security guards are missing."

"I don't see any signs of a battle," Vent pointed out. "That means they must be around somewhere."

"I guess," said Ashe. She ran over to a nearby entrance, a set of double glass doors set into a glass wall. With the indoor lights turned off the only thing she could see was the empty reception desk. She tried to open the doors and discovered that they were locked securely from the inside. "Damn! What the hell is going on around here?"

"Let's check around the side of the building," Prairie suggested. "Maybe there's an unlocked delivery hatch or something we could use to get in."

"Good idea. Come on, this way," Vent motioned for the other two to follow as he jogged around the corner of the structure.

A short distance down the side of the building they found what they were looking for - a delivery garage. Although the shutter over the door was closed tight, there was a small numeric keypad and display on the wall nearby.

"Model X, think you can handle it?" Vent asked as he held the biometal up to the pad.

"Yes, just give me a few seconds to access the system history," the biometal replied. A few moments later the keypad beeped four times as Model X transmitted the correct sequence of data to the console.

"All right!" Vent pumped his fist in success as the shutter retracted into the ceiling. "Thanks, Model X! Now, let's head in and find out what's going on around here."

Vent walked into the outline of the garage door - and came face to face with a Galleon.

"Wh...what the-" Vent stammered out, then instinctively ducked as a burst of plasma fire passed through the space where his head had been a moment ago. Recovering himself quickly, Vent gave the Galleon a fierce roundhouse kick as he straightened himself, knocking it to the ground and revealing another of the maverick drones right behind it, this one carrying a laser sword. Vent stepped sideways as it lunged past him in an attempt to impale him on the tip, then watched as it became riddled with laser fire from Ashe's plasma pistol.

Looking into the unlit garage, Vent's mouth fell open as he was met with the red, glowing eye sensors of dozens of Galleon soldiers. He barely ducked back around the corner of the garage door before a hail of plasma fire raced by. Vent quickly reached into his pockets, grabbed hold of his two biometals, and Megamerged in a flash of light, with Ashe quickly following suit.

"I told you I didn't like this!" Ashe yelled to him as she popped out from cover to fire off a few shots into the garage door, "not one bit!"

"What are mavericks doing here?" Prairie said, confused and slightly panicked. "How did they get into Legion HQ without anyone noticing? And what happened to..."

"I can take a fair guess at what happened to everyone inside," Vent said grimly, "and there's nothing we can do about it now." He abruptly turned and slashed with his saber, cleaving a Galleon in two just as it rounded the corner. "I don't think we can hold them for long. We need to get out of here!"

"Agreed. I've got a plan - give me some cover and I can probably buy us enough time to get some distance from these buckets of trash."

"You got it." Vent charged up his ZX-Saber and ZX-Buster, then rounded the corner and unleashed a furious assault on the Galleons that were trying to escape the garage.

"A-Trans!" Ashe yelled behind him as she shifted into the form of Buckfire. Using her massive bulk and powerful legs she quickly began to execute several Meteor Kicks on the wall above the garage entrance as Vent wreaked havoc down below.

Seeing the cracks that spread through the building above the door, Prairie quickly deciphered Ashe's plan. As the ceiling over the garage door began to shudder under the repeated impacts of Ashe's attacks, Prairie yelled a warning. "Vent, the ceiling! Get out of there!"

Vent unleashed another pair of charged attacks, then fired off a series of buster shots as he retreated from within the building, having only taken minimal damage. Shortly after he was clear of the building Ashe succeeded in caving in the concrete roof over the garage door, blocking it off completely with heavy rubble.

Ashe quickly shifted back to her Megamerged form and breathed a sigh of relief. "There, that should hold them for a minute. Now let's get the hell out of here before-"

"Look out!" Vent yelled as he shoved the Hunter aside just in time to avoid being hit by a series of plasma bullets. Looking farther down the side of the building, the three of them could see Galleons swarming out from other garage doors similar to the one they'd just sealed all down the length of the structure.

"What the hell, where are all these things _coming_ from?!" Ashe yelled as she fired both of her plasma guns towards the maverick horde. Then they all heard a shatter of glass above them, and when they looked up they saw even more mavericks - and not just flying Galleons - emerging from the depths of the Legion HQ.

"I don't know, but we're leaving!" Vent grabbed Prairie's arm and dragged her along behind him as they all started running for the street they'd used to approach the Headquarters. "You cover the rear, I've got point! Let's go!" he yelled to Ashe.

The three companions fled down the streets of Legion as mavericks swarmed past them, heading for the defenseless city beyond.

* * *

Author's Note

So, I finally get around to explaining what the heck is going on. But, since I'm a jerk, I'm stopping this part in the middle of the explanation! Yes, I'm evil. I actually decided that this part and the next should be put together (since they're both kind of short), but I don't feel like re-numbering all the parts I've written after this, so too bad :P. I won't wait too long to upload the next one.

Canonical Note

Why does Model X suddenly have the ability to access the computer's history and hack the password? Convenient plot device. Don't ask questions. *shifty-eyed look*


	9. Part 9: Debriefing 2

SLIGHTLY IMPORTANT NOTE:

This chapter contains one (1) cuss word (a bee with an itch). I try to keep these things out of my text, but in this particular case, I think you'll agree that it's very fitting. I tried writing the scene without it and it just didn't have the same effect. Please don't be too offended by it.

* * *

Part 9: Debriefing 2

"So you mean, mavericks just started pouring out of Legion HQ?" Although Prairie couldn't see who had spoken up, she recognized Congre's voice. She nodded.

"Yes. As we made our retreat back into the streets of Legion we rescued several civilians from maverick attacks," Prairie said. "Before long we were escorting a dozen people through the streets of Legion, which were quickly becoming a war zone. It became evident that we had to find some kind of shelter before we were overtaken."

Prairie stopped talking for a moment as she heard the door to the briefing room slid open, admitting Vent, with Aile clutching his arm like she thought he was going to try and escape. Vent gave her a slight nod to indicate everything was all right, while Aile smiled and gave her a small wave. Prairie smiled back, glad to see that the girl was all right, before resuming her narrative.

"Luckily we were spotted by a group of humanoids who had taken refuge in the garage of a damaged apartment complex. Several of the residents had managed to arm themselves and were successfully holding out within the building. We decided to remain with them for a short time while we took stock of the situation and figured out what to do next."

* * *

"So, what are we gonna do now?" Ashe said as she sat down heavily on a wooden crate. They'd been running through the streets for nearly an hour, doing their best to escort the group of civilians they'd rescued while destroying as many mavericks as possible. Ashe and Vent were starting to feel tired, though Prairie didn't seem to be having any trouble keeping up and keeping the people they'd saved moving with them. Ashe had only just met the Guardian Commander a few hours ago but she was already impressed with her ability to handle people.

"I'm open to ideas," Vent replied with a helpless shrug of his shoulders. "There's going to be mavericks everywhere we go, and I don't think we'll make it very far if we leave the cover of the city. Especially if we're taking any of them with us." He pointed over his shoulder to the group of civilians huddled nearby who were still futilely trying to get a signal from the communications console.

"We can't stay here for long," Prairie said as she looked around the room. While the walls were made of a solid mix of steel and concrete that could stand up to a moderate amount of firepower, there were windows all around the sides that could easily be used as a way in. Three of the men had taken positions at the two doors into the building, keeping an eye on the street for anyone or anything that approached their hideout. They had managed to keep the occasional curious maverick from getting inside but it was obvious they lacked the skill or firepower to repel any sort of concentrated assault.

Wracking her brain for a solution, Prairie remembered the nearby surveillance lab set up at the bottom of the energy mine only a short distance from the Legion borders. They could use the transerver located there to escape back to the Guardian Base, while at the same time she might be able to get some information on what was going on from the data servers. It would reveal the lab's existence to the world, but that was the least of her worries at the moment.

"I've got an idea," Prairie began, but was interrupted when one of the two doors abruptly exploded, killing the two men guarding it.

'Oh sh-" the remaining man screamed as he fired a few rounds through the doorway before a laser shot took him through the chest. He slumped to the floor, dead before he hit the ground.

"Everyone away from the windows, now!" Vent yelled as he dashed for the two doors, reaching them just in time to cleave through a group of Galleons as they entered the building. Moments later four of the windows along the sides of the building were shattered as more Galleons swung inside. Ashe calmly locked on to them all and fired a single Homing Shot, wiping them out before they could attack. She then dashed along the lengths of the room, blasting more mavericks as they poured through the shattered windows.

"Isn't this is a little overkill just to take out a few civilians?!" Ashe yelled as she fired another Homing Shot into a group of Galleons clustered outside as they prepared to enter the building.

"I think you're right," Vent yelled in agreement as he impaled a maverick with his saber, then fired a charged shot into an approaching swarm of flying cannons. "If they didn't know the three of us were here before, I think it's safe to say they know we're here now!"

A few moments later, the tide of mavericks began to slow, and eventually stop. The two Mega Men seemed to have taken out most of the mavericks in the area. Ashe figured they should have a little bit of time to breathe before reinforcements arrived.

"I think it's time for us to get out of here," Ashe said, taking a quick glance over to where Prairie was attempting to keep the rapidly panicking civilians away from the battlezone.

"If you think you'll be okay in here for a minute I'll go make sure the coast is clear," Vent said. He waited for Ashe to nod her agreement before dashing out into the street.

"Prairie, get those people ready to-"

A loud crash cut her off as a large mechanical figure crashed a hole through the ceiling of the garage, landing on the ground between Prairie and Ashe in a rain of dust and debris.

"Now then, what do we have in here that keeps destroying all my soldiers?" a feminine voice said. The first person it noticed was Prairie, standing a short distance in front of it. "Well, it looks like we were right after all," the mechaniloid - no, a pseudoroid, Ashe realized - said as it straightened. "We had never thought to be so fortunate as to have the Commander of the Guardians walk right into our laps." Something moved on the backside of the figure. "Thank you for making this so easy."

"Prairie move!" Ashe yelled as she locked on and fired a Homing Shot at the pseudoroid's back in an attempt to stop it, but she knew she was too late.

Afterward, Ashe couldn't decide what startled her more - that Prairie seemed to dodge the pseudoroid's attack with ease, or that the attacker then proceeded to successfully avoid her Homing Shot with a swift series of evasive maneuvers. No one had ever done that before - there was a reason it was called a Homing Shot.

"Well, I'd almost forgotten that you were here too," the pseudoroid said, sounding annoyed. It gracefully turned around, giving Ashe her first good look at its features. The thing's body was lightly armored, which aided in giving her the amazing agility that had allowed the seven-foot tall reploid to dodge Ashe's homing attack. Keeping with the theme of other pseudoroids, this one was also designed in the shape of an animal - in this case, a fox. A thick and powerful tail protruded from the pseudoroid's backside, which had been what had shot out at Prairie. Ashe took careful note of the incredible speed the tail had - dodging it would be no laughing matter. _Then how did Prairie make it look so...easy?_

The pseudoroid regarded Ashe through its thin, slitted eyes with a look of contempt. "I wasn't given any orders concerning you, but I'll bet my superiors would love to get their hands on that nice little biometal you're wearing."

"In your dreams!"

"How fortunate for me, then, as my dreams are coming to life all around me as we speak!" The fox made a dramatic flourish, indicating everything that was happening in the city around them. "If you will not give it willingly, then I, Ninetails the Foxroid, will take it from you!"

Ashe was ready when the fox attacked with her tail, flicking it out with incredible speed in an attempt to impale the Hunter. Ashe ducked under the tip as it passed through where her chest had just been, then fired the fully charged Reflect Shot she'd been storing. The pseudoroid easily dodged the attack, but was caught by surprise as the shot ricocheted off the wall and hit her square in the back.

"Gah! You _hit_ me, you little twit!" Ninetails screamed indignantly.

"Get used to it!" Ashe retorted as she fired a blanket of plasma bullets across the room.

"Nobody hits me and gets away with it!" The fox yelled as she jumped over Ashe's attack, followed by another lashing attack from her tail. Ashe neatly sidestepped the attack, but was caught by surprise when the tail broke apart, one of the pieces lashing out directly at her. It took her full in the stomach, knocking her across the room. She managed to roll with the attack and skidded to a halt on her feet, but she could definitely feel the pain of the tail's contact with her chest armor.

Seeing that the foxroid now had a total of three tails to attack with, Ashe decided to change tactics. _I'll just have to fight speed with speed._ She used her A-Trans to become Siarnaq, the Model P Mega Man, and began tossing waves of kunais at her opponent. _Let's see her dodge all of these!_

The pseudoroid didn't have to. Ninetails simply spun one of her three tails in front of her like a shield, deflecting the incoming knives. "If your attacks are all this pathetic, it doesn't matter how many of them you send!" she taunted as her two remaining tails attacked.

Ashe stopped her kunai barrage and began storing power as she dodged and weaved around the twin-tailed assault, which was soon joined by the third tail since it was no longer needed to deflect the kunais.

"You're much faster when you're in that form, but how much can you handle?" the pseudoroid taunted as it saw an opening and launched her third tail, aiming to kill.

Seeing that she was in trouble, Ashe used her charged power to fire a Mandala Star. As the three tails closed in on her from different angles, several spheres of purple energy winked into existence all around her body. The tails collided with the spheres and recoiled in pain as they were cut by the whirling blades of energy around the spheres.

The pseudoroid's defiant shriek was a mix of pain and frustration. "Troublesome humanoid worm! Either you've developed new attacks or Siarnaq is capable of more than he's letting on!" Seeing that she needed a change of strategy, Ninetails pulled its tails back. Ashe watched as all three split much like the first one had, forming a total of nine tails.

_I really should have seen that coming._

The tips of all nine tails began to glow, then began to rapidly discharge tiny bolts of flame at the Hunter. Ashe made good use of Siarnaq's agility to dodge the majority of the flaming projectiles, but several of them impacted with and consumed her Mandala Stars. Some of the blasts that missed her completely hit the walls and containers inside the garage, starting a number of small fires around the room.

Rather than concentrate on attacking like she'd planned, Ashe was once again forced onto the defensive as she had to continuously reform her protective orbs of swirling energy blades. If she didn't then there would be nothing stopping Ninetails from lashing out with all nine of her deadly weapons, and Ashe knew should wouldn't be able to avoid all of them at once.

_Fortunately she just revealed her elemental weakness. Now, what should I-_

"Got you!" The pseudoroid yelled in triumph as she unexpectedly released a massive wave of flame from her mouth while Ashe was distracted.

_Oh of course it can _breathe_ fire, too._ Seeing no way to dodge in time, Ashe braced herself for impact. She involuntarily shrieked with pain as the flames ripped through her Mandala Stars and washed over her body, inflicting heavy damage. Before she could recover herself she felt one of the pseudoroid's tails wrap around her neck, followed soon after by her arms and legs, binding her completely.

"Well, that was fun, but I'm afraid our time together has come to an end," Ninetails said condescendingly. All around the two figures the flames began to leap up the walls as more and more of the contents of the garage began to burn.

Ninetails used her tails to lift Ashe into the air, then pointed her four free tails at Ashe's head. "Goodbye, Model A Mega Man," she said as she thrust them forward.

"A-TRANS!"

Ninetails was caught by surprise when her fatal attack passed through empty space as Ashe's body slipped from her grasp. The Hunter hit the ground rolling in the form of Hedgeshock, whose arms and legs were significantly smaller than Siarnaq's. Before Ninetails realized what was happening, Ashe rolled between her legs and fired a Spark Ball upward.

Although the Spark Ball fired in a wide spray, at such close range Ninetails was struck by nearly the entire discharge. She shrieked in pain as electricity coursed through her systems. Several of them overloaded, including her tails, which fell limply to the ground around her.

Ashe scooted to a safe distance several feet away before turning around - one of the main disadvantages of Hedgeshock's size was that he made an excellent football. "Take that, bitch!" she yelled, pumping her little rodent fist in the air triumphantly - for the first time since she'd absorbed the tiny hedgehog's biodata, Ashe didn't mind the fact that he sounded like an arrogant little twelve-year-old.

"You'll pay for that, you little runt!" Ninetails quickly regained control of her systems and launched a furious nine-pronged assault, accompanied by occasional belches of flame.

Ashe curled up into a tiny ball and dashed around the room, keeping only a hair's breadth ahead of all nine tails. Whenever she felt one of the tails successfully grab ahold of her, Ashe extended her electrically-charged spikes and was rewarded with another shriek of pain from the pseudoroid as she was forced to relinquish her hold. Ashe wasn't sure exactly how effective it was in terms of damaging her opponent, but it was keeping her alive for the time being.

Unfortunately, Hedgeshock's body was incapable of keeping up a continuous roll indefinitely. Every so often Ashe was forced to unfurl her body for a brief second before resuming her evasive maneuvers. Ninetails eventually figured out the pattern and managed to grab ahold of the hedgehog with two tails just as Ashe was forced to pull out of her roll. Fully entwined by the tails, Ashe was prevented from beginning another Rolling Dash, and Ninetails kept the hedgehog's spikes facing away from herself so that Ashe couldn't hit her with another Spark Ball.

"Time to die!" the foxroid yelled as she squeezed with her tails and prepared to unleash another blast of flame from her mouth. However, just as she was about to fire a plasma burst hit her in the side of the head, causing the flames to fly harmlessly through the air and impact against the wall of the building.

"What the hell, who's there?" the pseudoroid yelled in confusion. Before she could turn to face her attacker, a wide blade of energy cleaved the air between Ashe and the foxroid, severing the ends of all nine tails. Ninetails screamed in agony as Ashe tumbled to the ground unharmed.

"Ashe, now!" came Vent's voice from the direction of the energy blade.

"A-Trans!" Ashe yelled as she shifted to the form of Aeolus, the Model H Mega Man - the Mega Man of the Wind. While Ninetails was still crouched on the ground in pain from having her tails cut off, Ashe drew her two lightning-charged short blades and dashed up to unleash a flurry of slashes, ending with a deadly Sonic Boom that ripped the pseudoroid's body in two, disabling her for good.

As Vent crossed the room, Ashe reverted back to her Megamerged form to admire her handiwork.

"Sorry I took so long getting back," Vent said, "it wasn't as empty out there as we thought it was. Looks like I was just in time."

"Don't flatter yourself," Ashe replied with an arrogant smile and a wave. "I could have handled her, but I saw you over there and figured I'd distract her so you could get a good shot in. I didn't want to be the only one having fun."

"Of course," Vent replied, not believing her story for a second. Good-natured humor was an excellent way to relieve the stress of the situation they were in. "Anyway, there aren't any mavericks left in the immediate area, and since we've taken down this pseudoroid, we should be safe for the moment."

"Safe?" Ninetails croaked from the floor, still clinging to life. "You're far from being safe, you worthless maggots," she spat.

"I don't think you're in any position to be making threats, fox," Ashe said, giving the pseudoroid a swift kick in the side. Ninetails let out a groan of pain, which then gave way to a hideous cackling laughter.

"You have no idea what's about to happen," she sneered. "Legion is the pillar upon which your entire pathetic society is built. Soon this entire city will devour itself, and from the remains, the new world will be born!"

"What are you talking about, maverick?" Vent said angrily. "What are you doing in Legion?!"

"My only regret is that I won't be here to see the end of all your pathetic lives!" the pseudoroid yelled, laughing. Her insane cackling continued until the final sparks of life finally faded, leaving an empty husk on the floor.

Vent and Ashe stared down at the still form of the pseudoroid, then at each other. Neither understood what she had been talking about. They were also afraid of what the answer might be.

The silence was broken by the man who had been furiously attempting to activate the comm unit, who started yelling, "I got something! I got a signal!"

"Who is it? What are they saying?"asked Prairie, who had been a short distance away, standing between the group of civilians and the pseudoroid.

"I don't know, there's nothing coming through. I just managed to get a stable connection to-ahh!" The man suddenly fell over, clutching his head with both hands.

"Roger!" one of the women yelled, rushing up to him. "What's wrong?"

"There's...something...in my head..." the man named Roger stammered, his face contorted in pain. "Voices...they're saying..."

"Get a grip man!" one of the other men said. "Just tell us what they're sayin' on the communicator!"

"They're...they're saying..."

Ashe's eyes widened in shock as Roger's fist came up into the woman's gut, knocking her flying across the room. There was a sickening crunching sound as her head collided with the wall, then she slumped to the ground, obviously dead.

"Roger, what the-" another man started to say, but Roger swiftly turned and punched him in the face, caving in the man's skull with a loud crack.

"They're telling me to _kill you all!_" Roger yelled as he began flailing around indiscriminately. He managed to injure five more people before they got out of his range, two of which were obviously dead. The remaining people all fled out of the building in a panic, despite Ashe yelling at them to stay inside.

"What do we do, Prairie?" Vent yelled as he cut off Roger's pursuit. "We can't just kill him, he's not a maverick!"

"I...I don't know!" she said back, trying to suppress the panic in her voice, and failing. She was almost in tears at what she was witnessing. Then she noticed one of the people lying on the ground that Roger had already attacked begin to move. "Vent, that one's still alive!" she said, pointing at the struggling figure.

"_Kill!"_ Roger yelled as he lunged at Vent, fists flying. The young Guardian easily dodged the attack, drawing Roger farther away from the injured man on the floor.

Ashe ran over and knelt down beside the man. "Are you okay? Can you move?"

The man looked up at Ashe, a maniacal grin on his face. "_Kill!"_

Ashe jumped backward several feet as the man lunged at her, horror painted on her face. "What the hell is going on here?!" she screamed. Nearby, the other two people injured by Roger were picking themselves up off the ground - they also wore the insane smile that was plastered across Roger's face.

As the fires caused by Ninetail's weapons spread across the roof, there were several explosions as the lights and power generators in the ceiling began exploding from the excessive heat. The roof of the entire garage groaned as the support beams began to give way. "The roof's coming down!" Ashe yelled.

"We're leaving!" Vent said.

"But...what about them?!" Prairie said, pointing at the figures of the four civilians as they stumbled across the room toward her. "We can't just..." "_Now, Prairie!"_ Vent yelled as he grabbed her arm and pulled her out the door, Ashe following close behind.

The trio hadn't dashed more than fifteen feet down the street before they heard the garage roof come crashing down, burying the four men they'd left inside. They all turned back to stare at the wreckage and feel pity for the innocent humanoids who had just lost their lives.

After a few moments of silence out of respect for the dead, Prairie turned and resumed heading away from the garage.

"We're moving out," she said, her voice ringing with a grim determination as she wiped fresh tears from her eyes. "We're heading for an energy crystal mine just south of here."

"Why do we want to be going into-"

"_Not now, Vent!_ Just listen and follow my orders! You get back on point while Ashe brings up the rear. If you see any more people who've started..." She paused to steady her trembling voice before continuing. "If you see anyone acting strangely, consider them a maverick and act accordingly, regardless of who they are. And please, whatever you do, don't let them get anywhere near you."

* * *

Author's Note

Like I said, this part and the last one should have been put together, so I didn't wait too long before posting this one.

So, that was my short-lived attempt at a pseudoroid. Just like in the games, it shows up, gets beaten up, then disappears. She's based loosely off of Cubit Foxtar from MMZ3, because s/he was cool, and there haven't been any Fox-based pseudoroids in the ZX series. Writing action sequences for Ashe is really fun because of all the different stuff she can do. A-Trans is a pretty cool ability to have and gives me the opportunity to do all sorts of creative things. I was actually pretty proud of myself for making Hedgeshock useful, he's pretty useless in the game (and he really does sound like an annoying twelve year old).

If the stuff at the end of the chapter seems slightly reminiscent of something out of a Resident Evil game...good. That's what I was going for. If you happened to think that when you read it, then I guess I succeeded. I'm not very good at writing "horrifying" stuff, so that was kind of an experiment. I hope I didn't freak anyone out too badly.

Well, tune in next time, when I wrap up this informative debriefing, cap it off with some revelations and drama, then throw in what is, I hope, a slightly unexpected turn of events.

Canonical Notes

All of the names for attacks were taken out of the move lists in ZXA. And no, I'm not the kind of person who makes my characters yell out attack names, because that always strikes me as an incredibly stupid and pointless thing to do.

Also, Mandala Star is overpowered in the game. Too bad Grey gets stuck with some useless throwing star instead. He definitely got shafted there.


	10. Part 10: Revelations

Part 10: Revelations

The mood in the briefing room was one of appalled shock as Prairie related the events they'd experienced in the streets of Legion. Although Zero hadn't been there at the time, Model Z's memories provided him with a vivid mental recording of the events in much the same way that Prairie described them now.

He could also remember the parts she was leaving out.

As he went over the events in his mind, Zero had the oddest feeling that they were somehow very familiar to him. It was almost as though he'd seen it all before, though he couldn't seem to put his finger on it...he dismissed it from his mind as Prairie continued on with her narrative.

"As we made our escape through the streets of Legion, we saw..." Prairie paused to collect herself, her trembling voice revealing her emotions as she forced herself to remember everything she'd seen that night. "We saw a lot of...very horrible things. I'll spare you the finer details.

"As we reached the border another large maverick force descended upon us. Vent and Ashe managed to fend them off long enough for us to reach the cover of the energy crystal mine, but shortly after getting inside Ashe received a critical wound when she shielded me from a shrapnel grenade. Combined with her previous injuries from her fight with the pseudoroid, she was unable to maintain her biolink with Model A." Prairie's eyes fell to the table as a look of sadness flashed across her features. "I was careless. Ashe and Model A saved my life," she said quietly, then looked back up at her crew, her emotions once again hidden behind a mask of determination.

"We were nearly overrun when we were unexpectedly saved by my friend here," Prairie continued, indicating Zero with a wave of her hand. "With his assistance we successfully repelled the mavericks long enough to reach the bottom floor of the energy crystal mine and use the transerver located there to return to Guardian Base."

"With his assistance?" Vent said from his place at the back of the room. The Guardians standing in front of him moved aside as much as space allowed, letting everyone else see him as he spoke. "That's putting it lightly. He pretty much single-handedly took out all the mavericks that chased us into that mine, as well as successfully fought off both the Model F and Model L Mega Men. We owe him our thanks, as well as our lives."

All eyes turned to look at Zero, who stared blankly at the table top, his face devoid of expression.

Seeing that Zero wasn't going to respond, Prairie nodded. "Yes Vent, you're quite right. We do owe him our lives." She then turned to Zero. "Well, I think it's about time you introduced yourself."

Zero took a brief glance at Prairie, who smiled at him and motioned for him to stand up. Zero did so, then waited a few seconds for everyone in the room to get a good look at him before speaking.

"My name is Zero. Two hundred years ago, I died."

The room was silent as everyone tried to figure out what exactly that meant. If he was dead, how was he standing here now? Zero quickly continued on before he was interrupted by questions like those, which would take far too long to explain and weren't really all that relevant to begin with.

"Due to certain...unusual circumstances, I was able to return to the world of the living by utilizing the powers within the technology you all refer to as biometal - specifically, that of Model Z. It was his sacrifice that has allowed me to assume the form you see before you. Rest assured, however, that he is not gone forever. Rather, he has become a part of me, and I carry with me all of his memories. Though I have never met any of you, I can call each of you by name due to his knowledge. He was a brave soul who understood what it meant to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of something greater than himself.

"The crisis currently taking place in Legion is a result of events set in motion over two hundred years ago. I have come back because it is my responsibility...no, my duty to bring this to an end once and for all. I could never rest in peace while an evil such as the one we now face still threatened everything on this earth with extinction.

"Though it is my responsibility, I'm not so arrogant as to think I can defeat this enemy on my own. Just as I had the help and support of the Resistance two centuries ago, and the Maverick Hunters before that, I hope that I can rely upon the Guardians to aid me in fulfilling my mission, the same mission that you Guardians have: to protect the civilization in which we all live our lives, where we are able to choose our own destinies, and where we are free to carve our own paths through life without fear of repression or retaliation."

Everyone was still silently shocked as Zero returned to his seat - everyone except Prairie. She immediately stood, turned to Zero, and bowed her head.

"Zero, as the Commander of the Guardians, I assure you that you have our full support and cooperation in defeating whatever foe it is we face." She straightened and turned to her troops. "From this point forward, Zero is of a rank equivalent to that of Commander," she declared. "You will treat any order he gives with the same weight and importance as if it had come from me, as well as give him the same amount of respect, if not more."

Zero glanced up at Prairie. "Thank you," he said, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

The Guardian Commander gave Zero a brief sideways smile. She was about to resume her speech when Zero spoke again, abruptly cutting her off.

"However, while you may speak on behalf of the Guardians, you do not - could not - represent the personal feelings of everyone in this room."

Prairie turned back to Zero, confusion written on her face. "What? What do you-"

"I need all of you to understand something," Zero said, standing once again and looking into the eyes of every Guardian soldier in the room. "This enemy we face now is unlike anything you've seen before. Throughout the course of this conflict you may be asked to do things which you never thought possible, or that don't seem to make any sense to you - frequently because they don't. War is insanity by definition, and sometimes we must abandon our reason in order to be victorious.

"A few moments ago, Prairie told you about their flight through the streets of Legion as mavericks swarmed the city and innocent civilians began indiscriminately killing those around them. Through the memories of Model Z, I can now remember those events as if I had been there myself.

"I remember seeing the things that Prairie refused to speak of."

"Zero, I don't think..." Prairie tried to interrupt, but Zero carried on over her.

"I saw the husbands as they went insane and killed their wives with smiles on their faces. I remember watching as the mothers turned to their young ones and slaughtered them, laughing all the time. I can vividly recall the screams of innocent children as they were torn apart by their peers, who then turned on each other with equal ferocity and ruthlessness."

Zero heard horrified gasps and strangled sobs coming from the assembled Guardians as he spoke. It took every ounce of his willpower to keep from joining them, to keep his voice cold and emotionless as he related the details of the horrors the three companions had witnessed during their flight through the streets of the ruined Legion capital.

"Zero, I don't think it's necessary for-" Prairie tried to interrupt.

"I do!" Zero almost yelled as he turned to glare at her slightly more fiercely than he'd intended, the intensity of his glare forcing her to take a step back.

Realizing how he had reacted, Zero quickly reigned his emotions back in. "I'm sorry," he said, taking a deep breath to steady himself, "but it _is _necessary." He turned back to the assembled Guardians, who were at this point full of a mix of terror and fear.

"I know the things that I'm telling you are terrifying, but they're all true. I need you all to know the truth - you all deserve to know what it is we're up against. This is the real face of what we're fighting. I don't want anyone to be here because their duty as a Guardian forces them to - I want you to be here because, as a part of the world in which we all live, you want to help me put a stop to the abomination that wants to take it all away from us.

"I need to know that I can count on you. Please, all of you, help me finish this mission that I've returned to complete."

Zero looked around the room, staring into the eyes of everyone present. In them he saw many things - fear, horror, terror, panic, all in varying amounts. None of them seemed able to voice a reply to Zero's desperate plea for their understanding.

Finally, it was Fleuve who broke the silence. The diminutive man slowly got up from his chair and walked over to Zero, standing proudly beside him. He spoke clearly, with a voice everyone in the room could hear.

"Zero. You know the names of everyone in this room because of the knowledge Model Z gave you. However, you don't actually _know_ anyone here, who any of us truly are." Fleuve then pointed a thumb at his own chest. "I do. And I think I speak for everyone when I say..." Fleuve glanced out at the assembled faces looking back at him, then turned back to Zero with a smile on his face.

"We're with you until the end." He held out his hand. "Whatever it takes."

Zero took another look around the room, and in the eyes of every person he saw something he'd missed a moment ago - a fierce determination, and a burning resolve to save the world they all called home.

The red warrior smiled and turned back to meet Fleuve's gaze.

"Good to know," he said as he clasped his hand with Fleuve's, shaking it vigorously as he turned to the rest of the Guardians. "And thank you. A thousand times over, thank you. All of you."

* * *

Fleuve lead the crowd of Guardians as they left the briefing room to return to their duties. The three operators also cut off their communications link with the briefing room so they could concentrate on the other tasks set to them. Vent and Aile made their way over to where Prairie and Zero were standing at the head of the table.

"Pretty impressive speech, Zero," Vent said with a smile. "Even if I weren't in your debt for pulling us out of the fire back there I'd still be willing to follow you to the ends of the earth after that."

"Good," Zero said, nodding absently. "That might be where we're headed."

There was an awkward silence when Vent couldn't think of a decent reply to such a cryptic remark. Luckily, he was saved by Aile, who pushed past him.

"Hi, I'm Aile!" she said cheerily, offering a hand in greeting.

"I know who you are. I have Model Z's knowledge." Zero spoke absently, his thoughts still elsewhere.

"You may know who I am, but you've never met me," Aile said stubbornly, her hand still extended.

Zero turned to look at the hand, then at the girl offering it. Looking into her emerald green eyes, he saw...something. He wasn't sure what, but it looked familiar.

He smiled and shook Aile's outstretched hand. "You're absolutely right, I'm sorry. It's a pleasure to meet you, Aile."

"Same here!" she responded happily, taking her hand back. "So, Vent filled me in on everything that happened. Where are we off to first?" She looked expectantly between the faces of Prairie and Zero. It was the Guardian Commander who answered the question.

"We're heading back to Innerpeace, for now. Legion definitely isn't safe any longer. The data we retrieved from the lab will take time to analyze. In the meantime we really don't have any leads on who the mastermind behind this whole conflict is, or how he's...doing what he's doing to the people of Legion." Prairie still looked disturbed when she thought back on what had happened.

"You don't know who it is?" Aile asked, raising an eyebrow at Zero. "A couple minutes ago you seemed pretty sure of who it was we were up against."

Zero shook his head. "What, not who. I have a few hints to go on but nothing solid."

"I may be able to shed some light on that, Commander," Tulip's voice said through the communications panel, followed shortly afterward by her appearance on the monitor above. "Sorry for eavesdropping, but I left my audio channel open to listen for a good time to tell you the news. I've managed to track down the source of the hacking attempt on the Guardian Base transerver...well, sort of."

Prairie raised a questioning eyebrow. "Sort of?" "Well, I didn't so much find the source as I determined the only possible place it could have originated from."

"And where would that be?"

"Legion HQ."

"What?!" Everyone was visibly taken aback by the news - except Zero, who simply nodded, a fact which went unnoticed by everyone else.

"How could that be possible? Legion HQ's servers are behind so much security, there's no way-"

"That's actually how I figured it out," Tulip said, cutting off Prairie's protests. "Whoever it was who sent this hacking attempt, they bounced their signal off of every transerver, satellite, personal computer, and toaster oven on the entire planet. The worst part was, I found that I was eventually tracking the signal through places I'd already been - somehow they looped their transmission path, eliminating any evidence of the source. I still don't have any idea how they managed that - it's the main reason it's taken me so long to figure it all out.

"Anyway, I noticed that one of the nodes the hack was bounced off of was the Legion HQ mainframe. You can't just casually bounce hacking attempts off of the most powerful security system ever implemented and get away with it. The only way you could do that would be if you had access to the mainframe."

"So even if the hacking attempt didn't originate from Legion after all, it at least came from someone who has access to it," Zero concluded.

"Precisely."

"The only ones who have that kind of access to the Legion databases are..." Vent began, and Prairie finished for him.

"The Sage Trinity."

After a few moments, Aile broke the silence.

"So you're saying that just days after we finished taking down one of those guys, another one goes off the deep end? I don't believe this!"

"It might not be like that," Vent objected. "Maybe someone is just using Thomas or Mikhail to gain access?"

"Oh no, the girl's quite right," a feminine voice said from within Vent's pants, startling the young man.

"Gah, Model L!" He quickly fished the biometal out of his pocket and held it out in his palm, much to the surprise of both Prairie and Aile. "I'd forgotten you were in there!" He had the decency to sound embarrassed as he recalled the private moment he and his sister had shared in their room.

"Oh? I hadn't noticed," Model L replied in a tone that said otherwise.

""Leviathan, what do you know?" Zero said, cutting the banter.

"Mmm, I've missed hearing you call me that," the biometal said wistfully, then became serious. "As I said, the girl's right. The one behind the attack on Legion was the one you call Master Thomas."

Zero, Vent, and Aile were all struck silent, while Prairie was simply confused.

"What did she say?" Prairie asked Zero.

_Right, she's not a Chosen One, so she can't hear the biometals._ Zero turned to Prairie and said, "Model L has just informed us that it is indeed Master Thomas who's behind this." He then shot the biometal a nasty look. "Though why she didn't feel it necessary to tell us this sooner, she has yet to explain."

"You never asked," the biometal said innocently.

Though Prairie was obviously distressed at this piece of news, Zero was impressed at how well she kept her composure.

"Well, it certainly does explain a lot of things," she said thoughtfully. "How those mavericks got into Legion HQ, how they knocked out all the communications..." She shook her head, a sad smile on her face. "I hate to admit it, but it really was a brilliant plan, when you think about it. First they take out the entire communication and transit networks, then they unleash a massive maverick attack across the entire city. When everyone starts to panic and look for help, they switch the communications back on and start infecting people with...with...whatever it is."

_INFECT_

The word flashed through Zero's mind like wildfire. Suddenly, all of the pieces of the puzzle that had been forming in his mind clicked into place at once, and a wild surge of thoughts shot through his mind.

_INFECT  
REPLOID  
MAVERICK  
SIGMA  
VIRUS  
__WILY_

"_Dammit!" _Zero almost screamed, pounding his fist into the thick metal table so hard it left a dent.

A slight bit frightened at this sudden and unexplained reaction, Prairie looked at Zero with a mix of surprise and fear. "Zero, what...?"

"_Dammit, dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!"_ He continued to yell, his voice filled with a mindless rage and he repeatedly pounded the table, which began to give way under the force of the blows.

"Zero, stop!" Prairie cried, panic creeping into her voice. She wanted desperately to calm the furious red reploid down, but she was afraid to touch him for fear he might accidentally hurt her in his fury - which was an unsettling thought in itself. In all the time she'd known Zero, as both Prairie and Alouette, she'd never seen him display this much emotion before - the fact that it was such an intense hatred was incredibly disturbing. "Zero, you're scaring me! What's wrong?!"

"_It's HIM!"_ Zero cried as his head whipped around and he looked her in the eyes, hate burning brightly in his own. "He told me it was something that should have stayed buried, something that should have been forgotten, but..." Zero trailed off as he unleashed another frustrated scream.

"Zero, calm down and tell us what's going on!" Prairie said, getting her voice back under control. It wouldn't help the situation at all if she lost control of her own feelings too. Vent and Ashe had both taken several steps away from the near-psychotic Zero, leaving Prairie alone to deal with him.

"It's the god-damned Maverick Virus!" he yelled, as though that should have been answer enough. "If I'd actually been there and seen it happening rather than through through the memories of Model Z I would have figured it out sooner. I don't know where Thomas got it, or how he's using it, or how it's infecting humanoids instead of just reploids, or, or...I don't know! But what I do know is that we have to stop that...that..._maniac_ before he manages to start the Maverick Wars all over again!"

"Zero," Model X spoke up from his place on the table, where Zero had placed him at the start of the briefing, "are you absolutely sure that's what this is?"

Zero rounded on the biometal, fury still raging in his eyes. "Of course I'm sure! Don't you give me that crap! You might have been created in X's image, but you're not him! You weren't there when Sigma turned, when he almost destroyed the entire world that he was created to protect!"

The anger began to leech from his voice, replaced by a deep despair. "You weren't there as we had to kill reploids who had been our friends! Reploids who were innocent, who hadn't done anything wrong in their entire lives, but who were transformed into merciless killers by the virus! You didn't have to..."

Zero shut his eyes against the pain of the memories that ran through his mind. Prairie thought she could see a wetness in his eyes as he cried out,

"_You didn't have to kill the people you loved with your own hands!_"

The silence following Zero's final outburst was deafening. Everyone simply stood motionless, unable to think of anything to say as Zero struggled with the memories that were overwhelming his self-control.

Finally, Model L had had enough.

"It's the reason you exist, you know," she said simply.

The look Zero shot at the biometal in Vent's palm was the most murderous thing Prairie had ever witnessed. Model L had no idea exactly how true her words were.

"I would gladly give up every _second_ of my god-forsaken existence if it would save the world from the insane creations of _that man_," he spat, then stood and stormed from the briefing room, almost knocking the door off its hinges as he smashed it open.

Prairie whirled to look at Model L. "What did you just say to him?"

"Nothing that didn't need to be said," the biometal replied, which Vent repeated for Prairie to hear. The Guardian Commander looked at Model L for another brief moment, then took off after Zero. Vent thought he saw anger on her face, but she was gone too quickly to tell for certain.

"Model L, what did you mean by that?" Vent asked after Prairie was gone. "That it's the reason Zero exists?"

"Exactly what I said. Zero was created during the Maverick Wars to fight mavericks. If there weren't any mavericks, he would never have been made."

"Did you have to be so blunt about it though?"

"Relax. Zero is fine, he just gets touchy about...certain things. Just give him a little while to work some frustration out of his system. Besides, that Prairie girl has a good head on her shoulders; she'll set him straight in no time.

"Now, onto more important matters." The biometal floated up from Vent's hand, coming to a halt in front of Aile's face.

The girl blinked twice in surprise. "What?"

"The last time I saw you, I didn't like you," Model L said coldly. "You were young, immature, rash, overly emotional, and self-centered. I didn't think you would ever have the strength of character needed to amount to anything, that you would always be an indecisive little girl who didn't have the strength to do what was necessary in order to get the job done.

"In short, you were pathetic."

Aile's face twisted in anger as her mouth worked silently to form a rebuttal, but Model L continued talking before she could come up with anything.

"However, you've grown since then. You've realized that there's more to the world than what you want, and that yelling at people isn't the way to go about getting it. You've experienced the feeling of being completely powerless as everything you love is taken away from you, leaving you with nothing but an empty heart and a cold blackness in your soul that slowly sucks the life out of you, taking away your will to live until you no longer understand why you're still here."

Memories of Giro flashed through Aile's mind as she glanced quickly at Vent, recalling the despair that had overcome her when she'd heard that he was lost in the fires of Legion.

"You now understand what it means to have power, and how important it is to ensure that you never misuse it," Model L continued. "Having the power to protect what's important to you is meaningless if you use it to take away something that is important to someone else. Though there is no doubt that you'll still make some mistakes along the way, I think you're worthy of having such power.

"Aile, hold out your hand."

Stunned at the biometal's speech, Aile numbly did as she was told. As Model L slowly descended she began to glow, softly at first, but getting stronger as she came closer to the girl's palm. When the two touched, the blue biometal flared with a fierce intensity. Vent was forced to look away for a moment, but Aile's gaze never wavered.

"Say the word."

Aile was confused for a moment before comprehension dawned on her. She smiled, then clasped the biometal in her fist and thrust it into the air over her head.

"Megamerge!" she shouted proudly.

As her body was bathed in the blue light of Model L's M.E.G.A. system, the biometal's voice floated through Aile's mind.

_Use my power to protect the world, and the hopes and dreams of everyone who ever has, and ever will, call it their home. Be a symbol of the freedom they desire, be the hope they so desperately need in these times of conflict._

_But most of all, use it to protect the things that are important to you, and the people you love. They are what make life worth living._

The flashing blue light receded slowly, revealing his sister as the newly-chosen Model L Mega Man. Aile was smiling from ear to ear as she looked down at herself, admiring the dark blue armor plating and sleek maneuvering jets on her legs, as well as feeling the more powerful jet that was attached where her ponytail normally was.

"Rock on! This is great!" Aile exclaimed.

"I definitely like Megamerging with females more than males," Model L said thoughtfully. "It's so weird, not being able to feel your own breasts."

Aile giggled, while Vent groaned and covered his face with one hand.

"You'll get used to her," Model X said from the table.

Tulip, who had been observing the entire situation through the still-active communications panel, wisely decided to remain silent.

* * *

It didn't take long for Prairie to catch up to Zero as he stalked down the corridors of the ship. Everyone he came across got one look at the expression on his face and quickly got out of his way before he trampled over them, leaving a trail of confused Guardians behind him for Prairie to follow.

"Zero!" she called to him from the end of a hallway as she just caught sight of him. He ignored her, instead turning around another corner. He appeared to be heading for the elevator.

Although she kept calling his name, Zero continued to pretend he didn't hear her. It wasn't too long before she finally caught up with him, grabbing him roughly by the forearm.

"Zero, what do you think you're-"

"Leave me alone," he said roughly, shaking his arm free and continuing down the hall.

_Oh, that is IT!_

As Zero walked by a nearby door, Prairie ran up to him, opened the hatch, grabbed him by the arm, and roughly tossed him inside before he could react. Caught off-guard, Zero stumbled a few feet into the room before he caught himself. "Prairie, what are you-"

_SMACK!_

Shocked, Zero fingered the red spot on his cheek where he'd just been slapped - despite being made of metal, it still stung. "What do you think you're-"

_SMACK!_

"Alouette, what the hell-"

_SMACK!_

"_Don't you dare call me that!_" Prairie roared at him, her face flushed with anger. "What do I think I'm doing?! What the hell do you think _you're_ doing!"

"I just needed to-"

"Needed to what?!" the furious Commander cut him off. "Throw a temper tantrum, scare the hell out of my crew, and punch a few holes in my ship?" she practically screamed at him. "Because you're doing a damned good job of all three!"

"It's not like that! You don't understand, I just-"

"_Don't feed me that crap!"_ she yelled at him so loudly the entire ship must have heard it. "_You're_ the one who doesn't seem to understand!"

'But-"

"You think you're the only one? You think you're the only one who had to sit and watch while everyone he cared about died? You think you're the only one who's suffered? You, you..." Prairie shook with fury as she screamed, "you _self-centered bastard!"_

"Prairie, I-"

"Look around you, Zero!" Prairie waved an arm to indicate the world around her. "Do you see anyone here from the Resistance? Do you recognize anyone from the time when you were alive?

"No! You know why? Because _they're all dead! _Whether it was from old age under the new laws, or maverick attacks, or mission casualties, or whatever else, every single person from back then is _gone_, Zero! You got to spend the past two hundred years in whatever place it was you came back from, but I had to stay here and watch as everyone I cared about died in front of me until finally I was all alone again! Just like that day when Ciel found me, lost and confused in a Neo Arcadian street, crying for someone to comfort me."

Her voice finally started to lose some of its edge, its heat, as she continued. "Oh sure, I had the support of everyone in the Guardians, but it's not the same - it'll never be the same. How could I open up to people who at any time might go on a mission and never come back? How could I possibly be anything but alone in a world where I'm the only one who never fades?"

Her voice began to tremble as she spoke. "Like I said before, every time I thought I couldn't take it anymore, every time I lost another friend and thought that was it, that was enough, it's time for me to end it...I thought of you. Of all the sacrifices you made, of all the hardships you endured, yet still you carried on, no matter what. Your strength and resolve inspired me to endure it all, for the sake of the world we all fought so hard to create."

Her voice became angry again as she weakly thumped a fist against his chest, her heart obviously not in it. "And then you come back and do something like this, and I just...I just..." Her voice broke as she fell against him, struggling to hold back a sob. "I need you, Zero. I need you to be strong. If not for yourself, then...for me." She looked up at him, the corners of her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Please?"

As he looked down into Prairie's pleading eyes, all of Zero's hate and anger was washed away, replaced by guilt. All it had taken was one brief moment of weakness, allowing himself to be consumed by his own grief, pain, and suffering, to injure someone he cared about.

_I'm a fool._

"I'm sorry, Prairie," Zero said as he gently embraced his friend. "I'm so very sorry. I don't think I'm nearly as strong as you think I am."

"Nonsense, you just make mistakes, like everyone else does." She smiled up at him. "Even heroes are allowed to make mistakes, sometimes."

"I don't deserve to be called that," Zero said, shaking his head. "I'm not a hero."

"You were to Ciel and I," Prairie argued quietly. "Even if we're the only two who think so, that still makes you a hero, even if the rest of the world doesn't agree. We believe in you, Zero."

"Well then, I'll make sure I never let you down again," he promised.

"Good," she replied, hugging him tightly one more time before pushing away. She quickly brushed away what little wetness had gathered at the edges of her eyes and straightened her uniform. "Now then, since we've got that all sorted out, let's go back to the briefing room and figure out a way to beat this thing."

Zero smiled as he followed her out the door. "Good idea."

* * *

When they re-entered the briefing room, Prairie gasped as she caught sight of Aile in her Megamerged form. "Aile, did you..."

"Yup! You're looking at the new Model L Mega Man!" Aile said proudly, doing a spin and flourish to show off her new form. "What do you think?"

"It's wonderful! I'm so happy for you!" Prairie exclaimed as she clapped excitedly.

"Much better choice than last time," Zero said to Model L.

"Yes, well," the female biometal replied, "sometimes you're forced to work with what you're given."

"So, what's the plan?" Vent asked, smiling at seeing his sister in such a good mood.

"Yeah, when are we gonna go kick some butt?" Aile agreed.

"I'm liking this girl more by the minute," Model L remarked to herself.

"Not for a little while yet," Prairie said with a laugh, feeling the tension of the past few minutes melting away. "We have a few things to take care of first."

"Aw, come on, like what?"

It was Zero's turn to respond. "You can't honestly expect me to wage a three hundred year old war against the greatest foe to ever threaten the earth - and win - with a body made entirely of scrapped Galleons, do you?"

Prairie giggled. "Of course not! Our first order of business is to get you a new body." She looked pointedly at Zero's missing arm. "Though I hope you'll feel a bit more attached to the next one."

"You have my word," Zero said, bowing dramatically.

* * *

Author's Note

First things first: no, Sigma will NOT be making an appearance. No, no, no. Second, just because Zero _says_ it's the Maverick Virus doesn't mean it is. Although, if it looks, acts, smells, tastes, and feels like the Maverick Virus...you'll just have to wait and see :). All I'm saying is, before you write the idea off as cheesy and corny, wait and see where I'm going with it. Also, if you're doing a "wtf?" over the thing with Aile and Model L - don't worry, it'll all make sense later.

I would have had this up days ago but the login area asploded so I couldn't :(. Sorry! (Even though it wasn't my fault.)

This chapter is my favorite one so far of all the ones I've posted. I worked really hard to get a lot of the dialogue exactly how I wanted it because there's quite a few significant developments going on and I wanted to make sure I conveyed the proper feelings associated with each of them - and there's quite a variety in here. What's written here now is actually VERY different from my first draft, and is significantly better (IMHO). There's still a couple rough spots, but that might just me being overly critical of myself - an author is never satisfied with his own work. At any rate, I'm still quite happy with how everything turned out in the end. Angry Prairie is incredibly fun to write XD. I'll definitely have to try and work in more of that later, if only for my own amusement.

This is the longest part yet, as is only fitting for the final part of the first stage of my fun little storyline. If this were a print novel there'd be a big empty page inserted here saying "CHAPTER 2: insert dramatic title here". (In case you're curious, there's 3 parts, but they're not all going to be the same length). As such, this author's note is going to be slightly longer than usual - sorry!

There's going to be a couple changes from here on out. First, every part in chapter two (so far) is significantly longer than the previous ones! Whereas most parts so far have been 2-3,000 words long, the ones coming up are all 5,500+. (The latest one I've finished is actually over 10,000 O.o.) Unfortunately, this also means I'll probably post them farther apart, since longer parts take longer to write (duh). Second, I'm changing the naming scheme I'm using for my parts. Rather than using single words that describe the events of the part, I'll be using appropriately descriptive titles from the ZX and ZXA soundtracks. More often than not, the song actually fits the events in the part, but it's not a necessity. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stick with it, but I'm doing a pretty good job so far. There's no particular reason for this, other than I thought it would be fun.

And to all of the people who groaned at Aile's line (you know the one) - that's _exactly_ why I did it :D. /evilcackle

Now, time to end this note with another outtake before I ramble on even more than I already have. Thanks again to everyone reading/reviewing/etc - it's very appreciated, as always. 'Til next time!

Outtake

_ Zero took a brief glance at Prairie, who smiled at him and motioned for him to stand up. Zero did so, then waited a few seconds for everyone in the room to get a good look at him before speaking._

Zero: ...I am Iron Man.  
Guardians: *gasp*  
Author: It's funny because it's almost true...*dodges fruit*


	11. Part 11: Awake

Part 11: Awake

At first, all Ashe could see was darkness. She felt something prodding her in the side but she couldn't seem to move her arms to stop it. Her entire body felt weird, like it weighed more than it should have. She felt as though she should panic, but she couldn't remember how.

She wasn't sure how long she spent staring into nothingness, exactly, but eventually the darkness that filled her vision was replaced with light. She could see vague shapes moving around in front of her. She tried to open her eyes to see what was going on, but they refused. She rolled her head around to try and get some idea of what the shapes were, which was when she realized she was lying down.

_I don't remember lying down..._then it occurred to her that she didn't really remember anything at all. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't concentrate enough to sort them out.

Then she noticed the voices - two of them, somewhere nearby. The first sounded female, and the second male. For some reason Ashe felt as though she recognized the second voice, though she couldn't have said why. It was just this feeling she had.

Concentrating as hard as she could, Ashe thought she could hear what they were saying. It was hard to tell, everything sounded really fuzzy, like her ears were filled with cloth.

"Are you sure she's okay?" she thought she heard the male voice say.

"She's fine," the female replied. "She was in a lot worse shape than she was letting on - she's a strong one, that girl. But don't worry, she'll be fine now that she's in my care, you'll see."

"All right, I believe you. Still, I think I'll stick around and wait until she wakes up before-"

"Argh!" The female sounded frustrated. "Fine! But don't look at me when you pass out from exhaustion, Guardian Vent!"

Vent? Why did that name sound so familiar...? Maybe if she said it out loud it would jog her memory...she mustered up all the strength she could, little though it was.

"Vent..."

She wasn't sure, but she thought she could see one of the shapes moving towards her before the world returned to black.

* * *

 Ashe woke slowly, feeling very disoriented. She was lying in a bed somewhere, staring at an unfamiliar white ceiling, without any idea how she'd gotten there. She started wracking her brain, trying to figure out where she was, but all of her memories were still hazy with sleep. She remembered something about a transerver, and trying to reach the Guardian Base...yes, that was definitely where she was, the Guardian Base infirmary. She couldn't seem to remember how she'd gotten here from the transfer room, though...

As she tried to sit up for a better view of the room, Ashe let out an involuntary little yelp as an aching pain crept through her abdomen, forcing her to lie back down. She gently lifted up the blanket that covered her up to her neck to take a look at what was causing the pain and discovered that she was completely naked beneath the covers. She attempted to voice her surprise, but the only sound that came from her throat was a surprised gurgle.

"Ashe, you're awake!" Model A's voice said from somewhere off to her right, floating into her view a moment later.

"Oh, you're awake!" a female voice echoed, off to the left.

Ashe rolled her head to the side to regard the source of the voice, because that seemed to be the only movement she could make without some part of her body complaining. Her gaze fell upon the figure of a girl not much older than herself. Short brown hair fell across her face, framing emerald-green eyes similar to Ashe's own. She also had a ponytail protruding from the nape of her neck that extended down to her knees. The girl's face reminded her of Vent, for some reason.

Ashe groggily tried to speak but her mouth couldn't seem to form words properly. Everything came out all jumbled up and sounded like nothing more than a sleepy grumble. Model A continued to hover in the air above her chest as the girl smiled at Ashe's attempts to speak.

"Take your time, you've been asleep for a while. You were pretty banged up, it's a wonder you're awake already."

Ashe grunted acknowledgment, examining her injuries further. A bandage covered the lump on her head from when she'd been blown back by a grenade and smashed against a wall. The wound was shallow but had bled profusely, putting bright red streaks through her silver-white hair. A multitude of scrapes, burns, and bruises were still evident, though instead of hurting when she touched them there was just a general numbness, like the nerves around the injuries were dead. She lightly touched her side and discovered it was covered thickly in some sort of sticky gel-like substance.

The girl at the bedside noticed Ashe's curiosity. "That's nanogel. The nanomachines in the gel are helping to repair the damage you took to your cybernetic implants. It's pretty expensive stuff, top of the line medical supplies - I'm not surprised you've never seen it before. Don't worry, Muguet says it only has to stay on another hour or two before it's finished repairing that nasty wound in your side. She said the head wound wasn't really serious, it just bled a lot. You're going to want to give your hair a good wash once you're up.

"She also turned off a lot of your sensory receptors to help dull the pain, which is why you feel numb all over. It's probably affecting your ability to speak too. Don't worry, they'll turn themselves back on again as your injuries heal. I've had it done before too so I know it feels kind of weird. You'll feel fine before you know it."

Ashe nodded understanding. "How...long..." she managed to croak out.

"You've been out for eight hours. Muguet says if you rest and remain immobile for another ten or so you should be more or less back to normal, maybe with a few stiff joints or minor aches. Model A is under strict orders to keep you in bed until then." The biometal bobbed up and down in the air in agreement. Ashe grunted and gave him an I'd-like-to-see-you-try look, then turned back to the girl.

"Who...are..."

"Oh! That's right, how rude of me. I didn't introduce myself." The girl stood up and bowed slightly. "My name is Aile, third rank Guardian."

The name sounded familiar, but Ashe couldn't place it right away. "Ashe," she said, indicating herself.

"I know, Vent's told me about you. You're the one who defeated Albert on the Ouroboros, right? That was pretty impressive."

Upon mention of Vent, Ashe suddenly remembered why she recognized the girl's name. Vent had offhandedly mentioned her on several occasions, but Ashe had never really gotten a chance to ask for any details - she didn't want to get too nosy into stuff that didn't concern her. From the way Vent spoke about her Ashe always figured she was someone very important to him.

"Vent...mentioned you..."

"Oh he did, did he?" Aile said, raising an eyebrow. "He better not have told you anything too embarrassing."

Despite the scornful tone in Aile's voice, Ashe could see in her eyes that she really cared for Vent. As soon Aile she began talking about him a certain fondness appeared in her eyes, the same as when Ashe heard Vent talking about her.

She managed a weak smile. "Vent...sure knows...how to pick'em..." Ashe said. "Lucky to have...such a...caring...girlfriend."

"W-what?!" Aile squawked, wildly waving her arms in protest. "N-no, that's not it, it's not like that!" A confused look spread across Ashe's face. Aile sighed and smiled. "It's not like that at all. Ashe, he's my twin brother."

"Oh!" Ashe said sheepishly. "Sorry...my bad."

"It's okay. Most of the time we don't even act like we're related. He probably spent most of the time complaining about me being overly protective or controlling or some other nonsense." Aile rolled her eyes and stared at the ceiling with an exasperated look on her face, as though she'd heard it all before.

"Yup," Ashe replied with a grin. However, thinking back on all the times that Vent had spoken of his sister, Ashe realized that he'd never really sounded serious whenever he criticized her. He always seemed more...indulgent of her. And fond.

"You know...he loves you...very much."

Aile turned and looked at the injured Hunter, their eyes meeting as she studied Ashe's face carefully, which was solemn and sincere. Finally she sighed. "I know. I love him too." Then it was her turn to look sheepish. "That's why I'm here, actually."

"Oh?" Ashe said, surprised.

Aile chuckled. "Vent was here waiting for you to wake up until a couple hours ago, you know," she said. "After Muguet treated him he refused to leave until he was sure you were all right. I finally convinced him to go after I said I'd stay here and keep watch and let him know as soon as you woke up."

Ashe vaguely remembered the voices she'd heard before she'd woken up - so she hadn't dreamed that up after all. Vent really had been there worrying over her. For some reason, that made her feel...warm and fuzzy inside. It was hard to describe.

"So...are you...going to?" she asked. "Tell him...I mean." "Of course not! He was so tired he was practically asleep on his feet by the time I kicked him out of here. Men can be so stubborn sometimes!" Aile threw up her arms in frustration, then the two girls shared a grin.

"Silly boys..." Ashe said, "can't even...take care...of themselves."

"Which brings me back to why I'm here," Aile replied, her tone suddenly serious again as she locked gazes with the girl on the bed, her hands clenched nervously in front of her. "Ashe...thank you for protecting my brother. He's all I have left, and I don't know what I'd do if I lost him. Now that I've met you, it makes me feel a lot better to know he's got someone like you watching out for him. It...really means a lot to me."

With a significant amount of effort, Ashe managed to free her left hand from under her blankets, placing it on top of Aile's. The two girls shared a smile that said more than words ever could have.

Then Ashe's mouth broadened into a grin. "Hard to find...such cute guys...these days. Gotta save...the ones...I can."

Aile stared blankly at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Ashe, if you're even half as fun when you're not all busted up, I think we're going to get along just fine," she said.

"I...think so...too," Ashe replied.

After catching her breath, Aile stood up and walked to the door. "Well, I think I've kept you up long enough. You should go back to sleep, it'll help your body fix itself faster. Your clothes are off being cleaned and mended, they'll be here by the time you're able to get them back on." She pressed a button on the control panel by the door which turned off the lights and closed the window shutter. "Now get your beauty sleep, and I'll see you in the morning."

Ashe waved her free hand weakly in parting as the door slid closed behind the smiling Guardian girl. Suddenly she felt very tired - talking with Aile had taken more energy than she'd realized.

"I...like her..." Ashe mustered the energy to say, looking up at Model A.

"Me too," the biometal said, then he bobbed up and down in the air. "Now go to sleep. Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

"With what..." She was asleep before Model A could think of a decent comeback.

* * *

The next time Ashe woke it was to a grumbling stomach.

"Urngh, hungry..." she mumbled sleepily as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes with both hands.

_Well that's a good sign, both my arms are working again._

She quickly tested out some of her other body parts and found that most of them seemed to be working all right. The nanogel that had been covering the wound in her side was gone, leaving only a layer of new pink skin behind. She touched it gingerly a few times and found it was still pretty tender, but at least it was healing nicely. Hopefully she wouldn't end up with a scar.

Ashe also noticed that she still wasn't wearing anything under the covers. Remembering what Aile had said about her clothing she looked around the room, spotting it sitting on a chair a short distance away.

"Well, time to take myself for a test drive." She glanced at Model A, who was still sitting on the table to her right. "Turn around for a minute would you?"

"Huh? What for?"

"I'm going to get dressed, now turn around."

"Ashe, I'm a biometal, what difference does it make if I-"

"It's the principle of the thing!" she huffed. "Now turn around before I put you in a drawer."

"Oh, all right, but I still think you're being silly." Model A spun in place to look at the wall.

Ashe gave an exasperated sigh then threw her legs around over the side of the bed. The air was slightly chilly against her bare skin, but not uncomfortably so. She placed her feet on the ground, then slowly stood up, putting her entire weight on her legs. She seemed to be doing okay at first, but then her left leg wobbled and started to fall out from under her. She quickly caught herself on the bed before she fell into a pile on the floor.

"What was that?" Model A asked. "Are you okay? Do you need me to-"

"Don't you dare turn around! I'm fine, you just stare at that wall like your life depends on it - because it does!"

Ashe could hear Model A sigh as she pulled herself back up using mostly her arms, which seemed to be a lot steadier than her legs. After getting her feet back under her Ashe made a few tentative steps towards her clothing. Now that she knew her legs were a little wobbly she was able to keep herself up without much difficulty.

"Victory!" she yelled as she successfully made the ten-step journey to her pile of clothes. She reached down and picked up her black jumpsuit. "Now for the fun part."

After a lot of twisting and sitting Ashe finally managed to get herself into the garment. She gasped a few times as the purple material slipped over newly-healed wounds, and she took extreme care not to rub it against the wound in her side, but overall she didn't have too much difficulty. It did, however, make her feel very tired - her body was obviously still not fully recovered. She decided to leave her jacket and belt on the chair for the time being, taking only her bandana with her as she carefully made her way back to the infirmary bed.

"You can turn back around now," she said to Model A as she tied her hair back into her usual ponytail with the strip of red cloth. She grimaced as she felt her hands brush against crusty sections of dried blood, but there was nothing she could do about it until she could stand up long enough to take a shower.

Before Model A could voice the snippy response he was preparing the door to Ashe's little room slid open, allowing a short, plump reploid woman into the room. Bouncy brown curls framed the woman's face as she smiled at the now-dressed Ashe sitting on the bed.

"I thought you might be waking up soon," she said, sounding proud of herself for guessing correctly. "How do you feel?"

Ashe's stomach responded before she could, emitting another low growl. "Hungry," she said, slightly embarrassed.

"Of course you're hungry, you haven't eaten in almost a day! It's a wonder your stomach hasn't started eating itself by now."

"Sorry."

"Nonsense, it's not your fault. Your body wanted to sleep more than it wanted to eat, so that's what it did. I may know a lot of things about keeping young people like you healthy, but nobody knows what your body needs more than it does. Now, you just sit tight and I'll send someone in with something to eat." Before Ashe could respond the woman was out the door again.

"Thank you," she said anyway, "whoever you are."

"That was Muguet," Model A said from the table beside the bed. "She's been in a few times to check on you since Aile left."

"She didn't do anything too weird to me while I was out, I hope." Ashe turned to hide her smile as she crossed her arms, pretending to sound worried.

"No way, I made sure of it! I was here protecting you the whole time!" Model A announced proudly.

"Oh really? And what would have done if she did try something funny?" Ashe waved her arms and wiggled her fingers goofily as she teased her friend. "Hover in her face menacingly?"

"N-no! I would've...um..."

"Relax, I'm just teasing you," she laughed. "I know you would have tried your best, whatever that would be. But you don't have to worry, these are good people. You don't have to protect me from anything here." She continued smiling, but her tone became more serious. "You protected me just fine when I needed it. Thanks."

"Of course! But..." Model A replied proudly but then began to sound sad. "It was my fault that you got hurt so badly! I know when we're Megamerged it's a lot harder for you to feel the damage your body is taking. I knew you were hurt too badly to Megamerge again but I didn't stop you, so you ended up pushing too hard and hurting yourself even more!"

"I don't think so," Ashe replied sternly waggling a finger at the distraught biometal. "Stop trying to blame yourself for me being stubborn. I knew perfectly well how badly hurt I was, but I Megamerged with you again anyway. You can't blame yourself if I get carried away and decide to do something stupid."

"But..."

"No buts!" She gently flicked the biometal over with her finger. "Stop trying to take responsibility for stuff you didn't do! If I want to be an idiot and get myself hurt so badly I pass out, it's my own damn fault." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "Besides, we made it out all right in the end, didn't we? Isn't that what counts?"

"I guess..." Model A conceded.

"Great! Now, let's not talk about this stuff anymore, it's too depressing." Ashe closed her eyes and laid back on her pillow to relax after her trip across the room to get dressed.

A few minutes later she smiled as she heard the door slid open again, allowing someone to enter the room. The smell of food wafted over, making her mouth water.

"Mmm, that smells..." Ashe opened her eyes and was surprised to see Prairie holding a large cafeteria tray, heaped high with all sorts of different foods. "Prairie?!"

"Hi Ashe!" The Guardian commander replied cheerily, smiling brightly as she set the tray of food down on a nearby dresser. "Glad to see you're finally awake."

"Since when did you become a waitress?"

Prairie grinned. "Well, I was in the cafeteria getting some dinner for myself when Muguet came in and said you were hungry. I haven't had a chance to eat anything since we got back, and I needed a break anyway, so I figured I'd bring both our meals up here so we could talk." She motioned over at the other side of Ashe's bed. "There's a meal tray hanging down the side there, if you want to whip it over here."

"Oh, well, uh...thanks Prairie, that's really nice of you." Ashe said as she reached over swung the small metal tray up from the side of the bed and across her lap, eyeing the plate full of food eagerly. Reading her mind, Prairie quickly pushed a plate full of food onto the meal tray.

"I didn't know what kinds of things you liked, so I brought a little bit of everything. It's not too bad, but it's not really the greatest either."

"When you're as hungry as I am, everything tastes amazing," Ashe replied as she started shoveling her mouth full of noodles and veggies, then realized she was being rude, stuffing her face like it was her last meal. "Gah, I'm sorry! I'm being..."

Prairie waved away her protests with a laugh. "Relax, I'm not such a stickler for manners, myself. Eat all you want, I can always go get more."

"Don't you have work you should be doing?"

"Yeah, but it's nothing that won't still be there in an hour. Besides, Vent said you'd be really angry that you missed out on the debriefing when we got back, so I figured I could fill you in on what's going on while you ate. Things have gotten kinda hectic around here so I don't know if I'll have time to do it later."

"Yeah, that reminds me! You've got some explaining to do about everything that happened down there in that mine. And do you know anything about what's going on in Legion yet?"

"Calm down, Ashe," Prairie replied with a chuckle as she served herself some food from the mountain she'd brought up. "Stop asking questions and eat! I'll fill you in on everything we know."

* * *

"Maverick Virus, huh?" Ashe thought aloud as Prairie finished her tale, her fork halting on it's way to her mouth. "Well if they wiped it out during the Maverick Wars, then why can't we do it the same way?" The fork finished it's trip.

"According to Zero, they didn't really defeat the virus," Prairie explained. "They cornered the source of it on the moon, so when they destroyed it's host body it didn't have anything left to infect and just sort of...died out."

"But mavericks didn't stop appearing until the Elf Wars started..."

"Zero says that after that, mavericks were created through other means. He refuses to say anything else, claiming that it's not important."

"All right," Ashe said thoughtfully, "but if they wiped out the Virus, where'd Thomas get it? I've never even heard of it until now."

"Yes, it's hard to find any intact historical records from before the Ragnarok incident, and even those we do find are usually of questionable value due to Neo Arcadia rewriting history to cover things up. However, the Legion database was created to be a repository of all of the knowledge of the entire world, so anything that _is_ known about the times before Neo Arcadia would be contained in it.

"Our best guess is that Thomas found information about the Maverick Virus and somehow managed to successfully recreate it, modifying it so that it could affect humans with cybernetics as well as reploids." Prairie shrugged. "It's a pretty crazy guess, but at this point it's the best we've got. We'll have a better idea once we finish analyzing the data retrieved from the mine - finding anything about the virus in those files would help prove our theory."

Ashe nodded in agreement as she ate another mouthful of noodles. "So, where are we headed now?"

"Back to Innerpeace. It's taking a little bit longer than usual since we're trying to avoid any Legion patrol ships in case they've been infected. We should be back in friendly airspace in a little over two hours." Prairie frowned. "We still don't know what we're going to do when we get there, though. Hopefully we'll find something in the Legion data that will help us beat this thing. Meanwhile all we can do is spread the word about what's happening and try to contain the spread of the virus. The Innerpeace government tends to do what I tell them after Slither Inc. turned out to be rotten to the core, so that should help."

"Sounds like a plan! Can't wait until I can get up and help you guys out," Ashe beamed an encouraging smile, which Prairie returned.

"Thanks. If you've got the strength to get up and walk around already, you'll probably feel fine within the hour. I've assigned you a room one floor down, number two three seven. Feel free to head down there whenever you like - it's got a shower installed so you can wash that mess out of your hair." The Guardian Commander rose from her seat. "Now, I really should be getting back to the command deck. That data isn't going to analyze itself."

"Oooh, a hot shower sounds like a great idea right about now.," Ashe said wistfully as she fantasized about being clean - getting all the dirt, grime, and blood off of her would go a long way towards making her feel recovered. "Thanks for everything, Prairie. And not just the food."

"I should actually be the one thanking you," Prairie replied, her tone suddenly serious. "You saved my life when you pushed me away from that grenade in the mine. I'm the reason you're stuck in that bed to begin with, making sure you're provided for is the least I can do. If you need anything else while you're here, let me know. You may not be a Guardian, but I definitely consider you a friend. You'll always be welcome in the Guardian Base, Ashe." Prairie continued smiling as she headed for the door. As she was leaving, Ashe noticed that she'd barely touched her meal.

_Wait...didn't she say she hadn't eaten since we got back? So she's gone over twenty-four hours without food, and it's not even bothering her..._

All of a sudden, several things that Ashe had noticed in the past day added up all at once. _First she dodges that pseudoroid's attack in Legion like it was nothing, then she climbs down an elevator shaft on her own. She hasn't slept or eaten in over twenty four hours and doesn't even seem to notice, and to top it all off, she knows a two hundred year old war hero personally...could it be? Is Prairie..._

Ashe decided to test her newfound friendship with the Guardian Commander. "Prairie," she asked quietly, "how old are you?"

Prairie froze mid-step in the open doorway. Ashe waited patiently for a few moments while Prairie decided how to respond. Would she lie and say she was as old as she looked, a young woman of no more than twenty-three? Or would she tell Ashe the truth?

Finally Prairie spoke, her back still turned as she stood in the room's threshold. "As of the time you asked that question, I have been activated for one hundred fifty years, eight months, twelve days, six hours, three minutes, and forty-two seconds," she said quietly, then left the room, the door sliding shut behind her.

* * *

An hour and a half later Ashe found herself relaxing under a nice hot shower.

"Ah, it feels so good to finally be clean," she said to herself as she enjoyed the flow of clean water over her skin. Having fully regained her strength, a hot shower was the perfect way to refresh herself after the trials of the previous day.

It also provided her with the opportunity to think about everything that had happened so far. Foremost in her mind was when she'd pushed Prairie out of the way of a Galleon's shrapnel grenade, taking the full brunt of the blast herself to protect the Guardian leader.

_Why did I save her?_ Ashe was confused at her own choice of action. _As soon as I saw Prairie in danger, the first thing I thought was that I had to protect her. I've never done anything like that for another Hunter, and I've known some of them for years. So why did I feel such a powerful need to do that for someone I'd only met a few hours ago?_

What surprised her even more was how Vent and Prairie had reacted afterwards. They had both immediately shifted their focus from simply escaping the mine to protecting the injured Ashe, despite how much of a burden she was. The grenade blast had not only inflicted heavy damage to her body, but she'd been blown back against the cavern wall and taken a nasty blow to the head, rendering her almost entirely senseless for several minutes.

The next thing Ashe could remember clearly was looking up and seeing Prairie's face staring back at her, her expression full of worry and concern, while Vent stood over them fighting off the approaching wave of mavericks as best he could. It was then that she decided that if she were going to die right then and there, she couldn't think of any two people she'd rather meet her end with. Determined to stare death in the face before it claimed her, she'd struggled to keep fighting with her plasma pistol, even though she could barely aim straight.

_Luckily things turned out much differently than I had expected._

She heard the comm unit on the wall near the bathroom door start to beep, indicating someone was outside. She quickly turned the water off, threw a towel down on the floor, then walked over and activated the speaker. "Who is it?"

"It's Vent," the familiar voice said through the speaker.

"Come on in, door's open! I'll be out in a minute." She quickly grabbed another towel and dried herself off, wrapping it around her long hair when she was finished to keep it from dripping. She then slid easily into her jumpsuit and opened the bathroom door, her view obscured by her towel as she began rubbing her hair dry.

"Sorry to interrupt," Vent said as he saw her emerge from the bathroom, "I can come back later..."

"Nah, I was just getting out anyway, don't worry about it." Without looking out from under her towel she walked over to the bed and sat down, then patted the spot beside her with one hand. "Come on, sit down. I don't have any chairs yet, but you don't need to keep standing there in the doorway. So what's up?"

"I just wanted to see how you were doing, that's all," Vent said as he went and sat beside her. "It's good to see you're up and around again. I was going to come pay you a visit in the infirmary but you were gone before I...uh, before I got there."

"Before you woke up, you mean," Ashe corrected him, remembering how Vent had been waiting for her to wake up until Aile forced him to go to bed. She peeked out from under her towel long enough to see the surprised look on Vent's face. "Aile told me. You never mentioned you had a twin sister."

"Um, yeah, well, it just...never really seemed like a good time, y'know?" Vent said sheepishly. "We were always being chased by mavericks or destroying Model W's or something. Not exactly a good time to have a discussion about family ties. I hope she wasn't too much trouble, she can be kind of...overprotective...at times."

"Of course not!" Ashe exclaimed, rubbing her hair vigorously. "She's got a lot more sense in her head than you do, sitting around in the infirmary waiting for me to wake up like that. Maybe if you took better care of yourself Aile wouldn't feel like she has to protect you from everything all the time." After a few moments of silence she stopped rubbing her hair long enough to look over and catch the stunned look on Vent's face.

"I was, uh, that is, I was just worried about you, and I, uh, I wanted to make sure you were all right before I, y'know, left," he managed to stammer out.

"I know. And thanks. I've never really had much in the way of family or friends that would get worried about me if I hurt myself, so...it means a lot to me. Really." She gave up on her hair and let the towel fall around her shoulders, her still-damp hair cascading down her back. Then she impulsively leaned over and gave Vent a quick peck on the cheek. "It was very sweet of you."

She could barely suppress a laugh as Vent's face turned the most amazing shade of red she'd ever seen - he was so much fun to tease.

Ashe let out a frustrated sigh as she fell backwards onto the bed. "Argh! I'm never going to get my hair dry like this."

"Why don't you do what I do?" Vent said as he recovered himself, happily changing the subject. He pointed at his own waist-length crop of brown hair.

"Oh? And what would that be?" She raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

"Just go stand up on the landing deck for a while, the wind'll blow it dry in no time."

"That's a fabulous idea," she said with a grin, then jumped up off the bed. She went over to where she'd dumped her belongings on the desk earlier and slipped on her jacket and belt, checking to make sure that Model A was secure in the pocket she'd made for him on her belt. Then she picked up her bandana with a free hand and turned back to Vent, who was staring at her with an odd look on his face.

"What? You're looking at me like I've grown another head," she said suspiciously.

"Nothing, it's just..." He shook his head and smiled. "I've never seen you with your hair down like that. It looks...nice."

She was about to ask him what _that_ meant when the ship's emergency sirens started blaring, followed shortly afterward by a female voice coming over the ship-wide communications system.

"Attention all personnel, we are moving to condition yellow. Please report to your assigned stations. I repeat, we are moving to condition yellow, all personnel please report to your stations."

"Condition yellow? Assigned stations? What's that mean?" Ashe asked as Vent bolted for the door.

"It means we've got trouble, and right now that can only mean a Legion airship has managed to catch us." He grabbed her by the sleeve of her coat and dragged her out the door behind him as she hastily tied her hair into its trademark ponytail, despite still being a little damp. "Come on, we'll be needed in the command room."

* * *

Author's Note

I enjoy writing Ashe, but up until this point in the story I haven't had a chance to do so from her point of view. So this part is a little indulgence of mine. Not to say that what happens in this chapter isn't important ;). I needed to get some character development done before the next fight scene. And for those who like the fights better than the talking, the next two parts are full of it :).

"Awake" is the song that plays right at the start of the game, as well as during the ending when you talk to cyber-elf Giro. I think both the name and the song itself suit this part nicely. It's track 2 of the ZX soundtrack Aile disk.

Regarding the long period of time between updates, blame two things: 1) schoolwork, 2) Star Ocean:TLH and the HDTV I bought to play it on.

Also, I'm going to take this opportunity to shamelessly plug the ZX oneshot I wrote/posted last week, titled "Stuffed Animals". There's no fighting, it's all mushy character stuff - I needed a change of pace. If you like that sort of thing, go take a look and leave a review to tell me what you think :).

Thanks again to all those who reviewed/favorited, both old and new!

Canonical Note

Don't read too much into how old Prairie is. I needed an exact time and I don't have exact dates to work with so I made it up. I arbitrarily decided that MMZ happened in the 2290's, and we're currently in the 2440's, thus making her somewhere around 150 years old. The two important things to get out of it are that 1) Prairie trusts Ashe not to freak out after learning her secret, and b) she's a LOT older than current-gen reploids are supposed to be alive. I know it means Zero's "two hundred years ago I died" line was inaccurate; he was exaggerating for emphasis.


	12. Part 12: Sky High

Part 12: Sky High

"How long until they catch us?" Prairie asked of her three operators.

"The five ships pursuing us will reach us in approximately three minutes. We'll be within firing range of the border patrol vessel in ten seconds. They are requesting communications."

"Don't answer it," Zero said flatly. "They could already be infected and trying to spread the virus to the Guardian Base."

"But what if they aren't? We can't just blow it out of the sky, they might only be-" Prairie cut herself off as a device attached to her belt started flashing. She took a quick glance at it and her eyes widened.

"What's that?" Zero said, motioning at the device.

"It's a special receiver that only undercover Guardians know the signal for. Someone on that ship wants us to know it's them. If they'd become a maverick I don't think they'd know enough to sent me a coded signal." She looked up at Zero. "Well?"

Zero grimaced, but said, "Fine."

"Open communications!" Prairie yelled at her operators.

"Affirmative, establishing communications linkup, displaying on screen one."

An image of a mid-thirties reploid appeared on the monitor dressed in a blue standard-issue Legion military uniform. He bowed slightly in greeting.

"I am Captain Jakobs of Legion Border Patrol unit five one two. Please reduce speed and identify yourselves."

"This is Commander Prairie of the Guardians aboard the Guardian Base. We're returning to Innerpeace on a matter of utmost importance and can't afford to be detained. Please allow us to pass through."

"I'm sorry, but all travel in and out of Legion airspace is currently prohibited. I've a special order from HQ that says nobody gets through no matter who they are. Until I'm told otherwise, those are my orders. Now I'm afraid I'll have to ask you again, either slow your ship down or I'll be forced to do it for you."

"Please, listen to me!" Prairie pleaded. "Those orders you received are wrong! Legion HQ has been overrun by mavericks and they're using the communications networks to spread a virus that turns people into mavericks. That's why you haven't been able to get a signal through to HQ for further instructions!"

The captain shifted uncomfortably. "While it's true we haven't been able to contact headquarters, I'll still need you to wait here until I get some sort of confirmation to let you through. Until then, my order still stands."

Prairie started at the captain on the screen for a moment, then nodded. "Very well then. May the truth be spread, and may all return to their homelands. Tulip!"

The captain's figure disappeared from the screen. "Transmission ended," Tulip said.

"What was that last bit about?" Zero asked.

"It was a Guardian code to get the word out about what's happening and then get out of there."

"He's a Guardian? Hmph, you'd think he would have been more helpful."

Prairie smiled. "Not him, his communications officer, Orion. And if Orion's there, that means his brother Leo is in charge of the reactor room. Marguerite, are the starboard cannons ready to fire?" "Yes ma'am."

"Fire a light bombardment, aim for their communications array and propulsion systems."

"Confirmed, firing starboard cannons."

A low boom echoed through the ship as the Guardian Base opened fire. Reports on the command room monitors indicated that all shots connected with the unsuspecting Legion ship.

"All shots impacted with intended targets, minimal damage." There was a moment's pause, then more reports began scrolling across the monitors. "Detecting irregularities in the target's communications and propulsion systems. Target is losing speed and altitude."

"Good work, now get out of there," Prairie whispered, low enough that only Zero could hear. "Continue on our present heading," she said at normal volume.

"Commander, the five vessels in pursuit have powered up their weapons systems. We'll be within their firing range in thirty seconds. They're making no attempts to communicate."

"If they didn't want to kill us before, they definitely do now," Zero said just as Vent, Aile, and Ashe entered the command room.

"What's going on? We heard the cannons firing, are we under attack?" Vent asked.

"Not right now, but we will be shortly. How's our battle status?" Prairie asked the operators.

"We still aren't operating at full capacity after the damage we took during our attack on the Ouroboros," Marguerite replied. "We've repaired all the hull damage but most of the port-side cannons are still inoperable. If they come at us from that side we'd be pretty hard-pressed to keep them from attaching their boarding arms."

"We'll cover it," Zero said, motioning towards the three Chosen Ones, "you just keep us headed towards Innerpeace."

"Are you sure?" Prairie said, concerned. "That body doesn't look like it can take another beating like the last one." She glanced pointedly at his missing arm.

"I'll just have to make sure I don't get hit then, won't I?" Zero said with a smirk, then turned to the gathered Chosen Ones. "All right, let's head up to the landing deck. I'll explain the details on the way." The three nodded in acknowledgment and they all dashed out of the command room.

Prairie turned back to her operators. "We're moving to condition red, inform the crew to prepare for combat! And tell Silure to try and get some of those port side guns back online!"

* * *

As they raced down the hall, Ashe found herself alongside Aile, who smiled and greeted her warmly. "Glad to see you're feeling well enough to come trash mavericks with us!" the Guardian girl said cheerily.

"Feelin' just like new!" the Hunter replied, returning the enthusiasm. "I just spent a whole day lying around in bed, I'm feeling the need for a little exercise."

Then Ashe realized something - if Vent had Model X, Zero was using the power of Model Z, and she herself had Model A, then what was Aile here for? _Maybe, since they're twins, Aile is also a biomatch for Model X? But then, what about Vent?_

"Aile, since you're Vent's twin, does that mean...?" "That I'm a biomatch for Model X?" Aile smiled and nodded. "It sure does! He and I used to trade off on missions."

"Used to?" Ashe was puzzled again.

"Oh yeah, you weren't there!" Aile triumphantly held up a small blue and white object which Ashe quickly recognized as Model L. "I'm Model L's new Chosen One! Zero had her with him when he came through the transerver."

"Hello Ashe," Model L said from Aile's palm. "I believe we've met before, but were never properly introduced."

"Yeah, I just kicked your butt," Ashe grinned.

"Don't even attempt to gauge my capabilities based on the little spat you had with that boy," Leviathan said disgustedly. "He was a useless fool who was in over his head. Rest assured that I am capable of far more than anything he ever did."

"All right, I'll be waiting to see you prove it," Ashe said with a smile. Then disturbing thought ran through her mind - if Zero took the biometal, did that mean he...

"Thetis is fine, if that's what you're thinking," Model L replied, accurately reading the expression on Ashe's face. "The only thing Zero hurt was his pride. I broke the biolink and came along on my own."

Ashe sighed in relief, glancing up at Zero as he led the way to the elevator. It was good to know that while the red warrior could be an unstoppable death machine against mavericks, he was merciful towards his living adversaries - it proved he had a conscience. While she still wasn't willing to blindly trust him as everyone else seemed to, her respect for him grew a little more.

"Let's cut the chatter," Zero scolded from his place at the front as they reached the elevator. He pushed the button for the landing deck and the elevator headed for the top level. "Listen carefully. Our mission is to protect this ship until it reaches friendly territory and we can get some ground support, not to destroy as many mavericks as possible - though that would undoubtedly be helpful.

"Vent, your job is to cover the port side of the ship. The cannons on that side aren't repaired and we can't afford to let one of those ships blast away at us without a care in the world. Your X-Busters should be able to reach the enemy ships and do some damage, or at least distract them for a little while.

"Aile, it's your responsibility to watch for enemy boarding arms and take them out before they drag us down. You'll also be cover for Vent and Ashe against any mavericks that make it on board.

"Ashe, you stick close to Vent and try to shoot down any incoming missiles - your auto-targeting capabilities make you and Model A ideal for this. Try to give Aile a hand if you have time, she'll probably have her hands full with taking out boarding arms and flying units.

"I'll be staying inside the hangar as a fallback, in case anything gets past you three. Prairie was right when she said this body can't take much more of a beating, and I'm of no use to anyone as a biometal, so I'll have to keep a low profile. I'm trusting you three to handle this.

"The most important thing to remember is that we're a team. Trust your teammates to do their jobs and we'll get through this fine." The elevator halted its ascent and the doors slid open, revealing a hallway that ended in open air.

"Right, let's go!" Vent said, holding his biometal up high. "Megamerge!"

"Megamerge!" Ashe and Aile echoed. Fully clad in their armor, the trio dashed out onto the deck to await the enemy while Zero took up his place at the elevator entrance.

* * *

"So, is there anything different I should know about being the Model L Mega Man than when I was using you with Model X?" Aile asked her biometal as the three companions took up their positions on the landing deck.

"Of course! Now that you're interacting directly with my systems you'll find them much more responsive and powerful. The underwater maneuvering jets also have a bit more 'oomph' in them than you're used to. They should be strong enough to give you a slight bit of aerial maneuverability - no flying or hovering, but quick discharges should allow you to dash around a little or keep a freefall from breaking your legs."

"Hopefully I won't have to test that one out," Aile said as she peered over the edge of the railing, seeing the ground roll by thousands of feet below.

"You still have the Overdrive capability that was present while you were using Model X, but this time the energy it consumes is fed back into my systems, meaning you can use it indefinitely. However, this method of energy recycling uses your defensive systems as a conversion tool, meaning your defensive capabilities will be weakened while the Overdrive is active. It also means that if you take any damage while in Overdrive the system will overload and become inactive for a few moments. So do try to be careful when using it."

"All right, sounds good," Aile acknowledged just as Vent and Ashe began to open fire over the side of the ship.

"Incoming! Get ready Aile!" Ashe yelled as a group of Galleon Wings carrying additional Galleons swarmed over the railing. Ashe fired off a Homing Shot that took out three of the pairs, then turned her attention away to continue blasting incoming attacks, leaving the remaining three pairs for Aile.

"Should be a good warmup," Aile said, dashing towards the nearest flying Galleon as it dropped its partner onto the deck. She summoned her trident into her hands and cleaved the first one in two with a single slice of the powerful weapon, then sliced through another with a backhanded swipe. The final Galleon that reached the deck opened fire, but Aile fired a jet of air from her maneuvering thrusters and blew herself sideways, easily evading the burst of plasma from the maverick's blaster. As the Galleon unloaded another volley Aile leapt into the air, then used the thruster in her ponytail to blast herself downwards again, the point of the trident held out in front of her like a lance. In the blink of an eye she was across the deck, the Galleon impaled on the tip of the weapon.

"Three down, three to go," Aile said to herself as she nimbly hopped sideways to avoid a barrage of bullets from one of the remaining Galleon Wings. She stored power in her trident as she waited for one of the three fliers to come closer. When she judged one was close enough, Aile leapt toward it. The flying maverick attempted to dodge sideways, but Aile compensated with a burst of her air jets and successfully managed to make contact with the drone. She firmly planted her fist into the maverick's red eye sensor, smashing it to pieces. She then pushed the scrapped maverick away with her legs and landed safely back on the deck.

With only two fliers left, Aile unleashed the power in her trident with a hard slash, sending two ice dragons chasing after remaining Galleon Wings. The mavericks tried to evade the attack but failed. After a brief chase the ice dragons connected with their targets, smashing into them with enough force that the Galleon's cores exploded in a twin set of fiery blasts.

Before Aile could congratulate herself she felt the entire ship tremble beneath her. She turned to check the starboard side just in time to feel another tremor as a second boarding arm attached itself onto the side of the landing deck, while the first arm opened up to allow its cargo of five Galleons to swarm out onto the deck.

"Crap!" Aile activated her Overdrive mode as she dashed across the ship, concentrating her power into the front of her trident. As she approached the maverick soldiers she made one massive horizontal sweep and released her energy into the spear. Not knowing fully what she was doing, Aile watched as a massive blade of ice quickly extended from the tip, growing until it was over eight feet long. The razor-sharp sides of the extended blade cut through all five Galleons with ease. As she halted her trident at the of her slash the frozen blade broke off and went sailing through the air, colliding with the second boarding arm and dislodging it from the deck. Two Galleons managed to escape and scramble onto the ship before the arm was torn away completely by the rush of air. Aile saw them head for the elevator just as a third boarding arm crashed onto the top of the deck beside her. Trusting Zero to deal with the two escaping Galleons, Aile turned toward the new threat.

Ice rapidly formed on the tip of Aile's spear and sublimated off again as fog as the power of Model L's Overdrive plunged the temperature of the two blades down several hundred degrees. Seeing a quick way to dislodge the boarding arm, Aile drove one end of her weapon into the base of the arm and focused power in it, dropping the temperature of the blade even lower. The metal latches attaching the holding arm quickly froze and became brittle, allowing Aile to shatter them with a single stroke. As the arm flew off into the air she saw that it had still managed to unload its cargo of mavericks, this time a mix of Galleons and other assorted mechaniloids. She also noticed that several other mavericks had landed on the deck while she had been kept busy with the boarding arms, forcing Ashe to keep one gun trained on the boarders and one at the Legion ships.

Not wasting a breath, Aile grit her teeth and threw herself into the pack of mavericks like a tornado of death, determined to keep them away from her teammates.

* * *

"Damage report!" Prairie yelled as the ship shook with the impact of another cannon volley.

"One ship on the starboard side is down, the other is pulling back with heavy damage. The two on the port side are continuing their assault. The hull is taking a beating, but still holding." Marguerite tapped a few keys, then exclaimed, "I can't seem to find the fifth ship!"

"What?" Prairie said. "How do you lose track of an entire ship at a time like this?"

"Commander, I've got a message from Silure!" Gardenia interrupted. "He says he's got one of the port side cannon batteries working, but...it only has manual targeting available?" Prairie and the operator exchanged confused looks - since when did their cannon batteries have manual targeting?

"Whatever, give him a vector for the nearest ship and tell him to start firing!" Prairie ordered. "Even if he can't hit anything it'll at least give them something to worry about." She turned to Tulip. "How are they doing up on the landing deck?"

"I'm not detecting any breaches in the elevator shaft. Several boarding arms have attached themselves to the ship but so far they've all been repelled with minimal structural damage. I'm reading dozens of maverick signatures all over the place up there, but I can't give you an accurate count because they're going down almost as fast as they're coming up."

Prairie smiled. "I guess they're doing all right then. That's a relief."

"I found it!" Marguerite suddenly exclaimed. "I've got a signal on the fifth ship! It's..." her eyes widened. "It's right above us!" A big red light appeared on Marguerite's screen, accompanied by an ominous beeping noise. "Incoming explosives! They're bombing us!"

"Evade, thirty degrees to port!" Prairie hit the ship-wide channel on her chair's comm unit. "All hands, prepare for emergency maneuvers!"

Tulip did some quick trajectory calculations, then gasped. "Ma'am, that heading will take us straight into one of the Legion ships!"

"Then I guess they'd better get the hell out of our way!"

* * *

Aile gathered power in her fist, then released it into the air with a punch. The water in air around her hand quickly solidified, forming a group of ice crystals. In a single smooth motion she retracted her limb and slashed through the fragile formation with her trident. The crystals shattered apart, sending a spray of razor-sharp ice shards at the cluster of Galleon Wings in front of her. Her attack pierced through bodies and wings, obliterating the entire maverick group in an instant.

"You're getting good at this," Model L said, slightly impressed at how quickly and easily Aile was becoming accustomed to her new form.

"It just feels so...natural," Aile replied, a touch of wonder in her voice. "It's like I've always been able to do these things and just didn't know how."

"It's because we're such an excellent biomatch." Model L sounded proud of herself. "But don't get too cocky or you'll end up like poor Zero over there. I'm the one who took his arm off, you know."

"I know, practice makes perfect. Don't worry, I'll be getting a lot more practice before we're done here."

The loudspeaker over the elevator doorway abruptly crackled to life. "All hands, prepare for emergency maneuvers!" Prairie's voice yelled.

"What?" Ashe said from nearby, looking around. "What happened, why do we suddenly need-"

"UP!" Zero yelled from his position near the doorway, "LOOK UP!"

She did, and gasped. Ashe had been so busy keeping track of the missiles coming from the port-side ships that she hadn't noticed the one above them, which had jut begun to drop large, dangerous-looking objects at them.

"Bombs!" Vent exclaimed. "Ashe!"

"On it!" She quickly locked on to as many of the falling explosives as she could and started firing, but at such a large distance she met with little success - there were too many mavericks in the way, acting like a living wall that blocked her attacks. There was no way she'd be able to take them all out before they reached the deck.

The ground abruptly shifted hard beneath her as the ship lurched to port. Still concentrating on shooting down the bombs, Ashe was caught by surprise and went flying across the deck, ending with a sudden stop as she slammed into the security railing. Unable to regain her balance, Ashe lost her grip on the rail as she flipped over it and tumbled out into the afternoon air.

She only fell a few feet before she felt someone grab her hand. "Got you!" she heard Vent's voice say as he dragged her back over the railing. "Looks like you owe me another one," he said with a grin.

"Thanks," she said, smiling back at him, though inside she felt confused. _I've fought together with other Hunters before, but it never felt like this...like we really cared about each other. It feels...good. _"Good to know you've got my back."

"Well we managed to get away from that swarm of mavericks and all those bombs, but now we're heading straight for that ship!" Aile yelled.

"You're kidding!" Ashe turned and looked over the rail to see that they were, indeed, on a collision course with the nearest Legion ship. Ashe turned to Vent and exclaimed, "She wouldn't!"

"She would," Vent replied with a nod.

A determined look spread across Ashe's face. "Not if I have anything to say about it," she said, then ran for the front of the deck.

"Ashe, what are you doing? Come back!" Vent cried, chasing after her.

"Don't worry, I'm just getting that thing out of the way! I'll be right back!" The Hunter vaulted over the rail in one smooth motion, sailing into the open air beyond. Moments later Vent heard Ashe's voice yell "A-Trans!", then watched as Aeolus sped off towards the rapidly approaching Legion ship.

* * *

"Ashe, these hoverjets weren't designed to outrun airships! I can't keep this up for much longer!" Model A yelled at his biomatch as they rocketed through the air with far more thrust than Model H was intended to use.

"I don't care if you break the damn things, just get me in front of that ship!" Ashe yelled back as she hurtled through the air towards the Legion vessel. The front of the craft was slightly behind that of the Guardian Base, meaning Ashe had had a bit of a head start on it when she'd jumped off the front of the base - which was good, since it was significantly faster than her. She managed to get in front of the Legion ship with only fifteen feet to spare.

"Now what?" asked Model A. slightly panicked.

"We push! A-Trans!"

The ship that Ashe was trying to disable was a Legion Nautilus class destroyer. They were created to be lightweight attack ships, capable of running down an enemy and destroying it with superior speed, firepower, and numbers. In order to meet these design goals, the Nautilus destroyer was built of very lightweight and relatively weak alloys, putting an emphasis on speed and evasion over durability and strength. Compared to other combat class airships, it was a very fragile model.

So when one of these speedy little crafts crashed bridge-first into the eighty-four-ton pseudoroid known as Bifrost, the ship lost.

Ashe crashed feet first through the glass covering the bridge, crushing most of the bridge crew as walls collapsed under her gigantic bulk. Luckily for her, Bifrost was sturdily built and she was only a little shaken from the impact. Unable to move her massive frame in the cramped confines of the demolished bridge, Ashe quickly shifted back to her normal form so she could turn and look out the hole she'd made.

"Yeah, we're definitely headed downward now," she said to herself as she saw the ground rushing towards them through the broken glass. "And I'm pretty sure I just demolished the navigation controls at the same time, so it's going to stay that way. Now I just need to get off this bucket."

"That's easy," Model A said, "we can just fly off. But the Guardian Base just flew over us! How are we going to get back on board?!"

"The same way these guys did!" Ashe ran over to one of the few remaining intact panels and checked the status of the boarding arms, finding all three on the port side were still intact. Just as she managed to find directions on how to reach them there was a crashing sound on the other side of the demolished bridge door.

"They're busting in!" Model A exclaimed.

"Good, we needed to get out of here anyway! A-Trans!"

As the first Galleon pushed the scrapped bridge door out of the way one of Atlas's Knuckle Busters smashed it's head off, with the follow-up fireball scrapping the three standing immediately behind it. Ashe wasted no time dashing into the corridor beyond, heading in the direction of the boarding arm launchers with guns blazing.

* * *

"Commander, the Legion ship blocking us on the port side is losing altitude rapidly," Marguerite reported. "It looks like we'll go right over it."

"What happened? Why'd it go down?" Prairie asked.

"I'm not sure. Some kind of large mass suddenly appeared in front of it and the collision smashed it off course. There's been no course corrections yet so I'm guessing whatever it was took out the bridge."

"Well, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. Turn back to starboard, resume previous heading!"

"Problem ma'am!" Tulip said.

"What now?"

"The fifth ship is matching our altitude and has set up a broadside position directly ahead. They're blocking us in." A warning appeared on Tulip's monitor. "They're firing a volley!"

Prairie and the three operators watched out the bridge window as balls of yellow light launched from the Legion ship in front of them, coming straight for the Guardian Base.

"All hands brace for impact!" Prairie yelled over the comm system as she herself did exactly that.

The Guardian Base rocked as it was bombarded by cannon fire from the Legion vessel, threatening to knock Prairie out of her chair. She could hear the groan of metal tearing as the attacks hit their targets.

After what seemed like an eternity the shaking seemed to stop. "Damage report!" Prairie yelled. "How bad?!"

"Bad!" Gardenia replied. "Of their sixteen shots, eight were direct hits, with four more hitting non-essential areas. Engines five and six are down, speed has dropped twenty-six percent. I'm reading hull breaches all over the ship. If we take another beating like that we're going down!"

"Analysis indicates they'll be ready to fire again in thirty two seconds," Tulip said.

Prairie grit her teeth, anger streaked across her face as she glared at the Legion ship in the sky ahead. "This is it, then. This is what it's come down to." She looked down at her three operators and said, "Prepare to fire the _Hope!_"

As one they all looked to Prairie, unsure of whether they'd heard her right. The resolve and determination in her eyes assured them that they had.

"Affirmative, activating the _Sword of Hope_," Marguerite said, speaking for them all as each operator typed in a special sequence known only to them.

Tulip flipped on the ship-wide comm channel. "Attention, we are preparing to fire the _Sword of Hope. _All crew, evacuate the reactor room and landing deck," she warned.

On the outside of the Guardian Base, the small golden statue that crowned the prow of the ship split apart along an unnoticeable seam. The bottom section shifted downward as the machinery behind it groaned to life, having lain dormant for over three years. Slowly extending from the gap came the six-foot diameter barrel of an enormous beam cannon, not stopping until it protruded fifteen feet from the end of the ship.

"Diverting reactor power to firing mechanism. Final checks clear, awaiting firing key." Marguerite's voice was carefully devoid of expression.

"Sixteen seconds until the Legion vessel's weapons are recharged," Tulip informed them.

Prairie calmly reached up and grabbed the stuffed animal she always kept on top of her command console. Flipping it over, she pulled down the zipper on the back, reached in, and pulled out an odd-looking key. She placed the key in an inconspicuous slot on her console and turned. A panel slid open beside the key, revealing a large, ominous, red button. Similar panels slid open on each of the operator's terminals, all containing an identical red button.

"Firing key received. The _Sword of Hope_ is ready to fire," Marguerite said as the three operators placed their hands over their respective buttons.

Prairie hesitated only a moment. "_Nobody_ blows holes in my ship and gets away with it!

"_FIRE!"_

_

* * *

_

Author's Note

It took a lot of willpower to not make Prairie say "Stop blowing holes in my ship!" at some point during this chapter. Captain Jack is one of the best characters ever.

"Sky High" is the name of the song that plays while you run around in the Guardian Base. The song doesn't fit quite so well to the events of the chapter this time, but the name still works rather well. Damn good song too, one of my favorites.

So a giant beam cannon is kind of random, I know. But I saw the picture of the Guardian Base and there's this big angel thing on the front, and I'm like, "wouldn't it be ironic if there was a giant gun behind that thing?" So now there is. You'll find out the why, when, and how later on. It was also originally called the _Light of Hope_, but I changed it afterward. I'm still undecided which I actually like better. Feel free to give an opinion, maybe I'll change it. I was also originally going to try and work in some sort of minor reference to the Enigma from MMX5, but decided that was stretching it.

Either way, stuff's gonna blow up in the next chapter. Also, a small plot twist! Wee! (Though you can probably see it coming...)

Once again, thanks for the reviews/favorites, and feel free to keep it up! :) Always appreciated.

Canonical Note

I have no idea what Bifrost actually weighs, but it's one hell of a lot. I just randomly decided eighty-four tons was plenty. He needs to cut down on the ice cream.

...'cause he's made of ice. Get it? HAHA PUNS R FUNY


	13. Part 13: In the Wind

Part 13: In the Wind

Aile was the first of the landing deck team to notice the yellow-orange balls of energy launching from the Legion attack ship as they came straight for the Guardian Base. At the speed they were approaching it was painfully obvious that the ship wouldn't have time to evade them. She dashed over to her brother's side and grabbed him by the arm. "Come on Vent, we have to go!" she yelled.

Vent began to protest, but stopped once he saw the incoming barrage of cannon fire. If they were out in the open when those blasts hit they'd be dead at worst, blown off the ship at best. He quickly nodded and followed Aile as they pulled back to the cover of the elevator, covering their retreat from the remaining mavericks with his X-Busters.

Having realized what was happening, Zero was waiting for the two siblings on the elevator and closed it as soon as they were inside. "That's one hell of a bombardment," he said. "With any luck they'll take out some of their own forces for us."

Before Vent or Aile could respond the ship rocked with impacts as the Legion cannons hit their marks. The screech of twisting metal and the roar of exploding plasma reached them even enclosed in the elevator, especially when one of the attacks impacted the landing deck. Aile screamed and clapped her hands over her ears as the blast sent a screeching noise tearing through the air, followed shortly after by a deafening silence - she couldn't even hear the sounds of mavericks outside anymore.

"I never thought the shaking would stop," Vent said as he released his death-grip on the elevator railing. "I think I counted eight hits."

"Ten," Model L corrected. "Two of them weren't too bad, I can see how you would miss them with everything else that was going on."

"Twelve, actually," Zero informed them. "Eight direct hits, four minor. I'd say we just lost a few of our starboard cannons, as well as some of the hull. I doubt we'll be able to stay in the air if we take another beating like that."

"At least they took out most of the remaining mavericks," Vent said, trying to look on the bright side of things. "I can't hear anything out there."

"Yeah, but that ship is still sitting right in front of us getting ready to fire again and we don't have anything to shoot it down with!" Aile yelled frantically.

"No, there's still the _Sword of Hope_," Zero pointed out.

"No way!" Aile protested, making a cutting motion with her hands for emphasis. "Prairie was completely against installing that thing and swore she'd never use it except as a last resort."

"This is looking like a time for 'last resorts' to me," Model L said, just before Tulip's voice came over the comm speaker.

"Attention, we are preparing to fire the _Sword of Hope. _All crew, evacuate the engine room and landing deck," came the warning.

"See? Prairie agrees with me," Model L said haughtily as they all braced themselves.

* * *

It started as a low humming sound coming from somewhere deep within the Guardian Base, an ominous warning of the destructive power that was about to be unleashed. Within seconds the hum transformed into a whine, which then became a hiss as the entire frame of the ship shook from massive power flow between the ship's reactor and the _Sword of Hope_'s firing mechanism. Just before the completion of the final firing procedures there was an eerie, expectant silence - the calm before the storm.

Then, with an ear-splitting screech that could be heard for miles around, the deadly beam cannon fired a pure white lance of death and destruction into the side of the Legion vessel. The beam cut through the center of the Legion vessel from top to bottom, neatly slicing it in two.

Seven seconds after firing the _Sword of Hope_ disengaged itself before the barrel overheated. As the ray of energy dissipated the two halves of the Legion ship began to fall to earth, rocked by explosions as its various systems overloaded.

* * *

Prairie was flung from her Commander's chair as the recoil from the _Sword of Hope_ ripped through the Guardian Base with a force greater than any cannon impact. As she tumbled through the air she saw the wall of the command room approaching far more quickly than she'd have liked and threw her arms over her head to cushion the incoming blow. Much to her surprise, instead of colliding hard with the wall, Prairie instead felt her head slam into something soft with before she tumbled to the ground in a heap. Confused, she quickly gathered her wits and looked up.

In her left hand was the stuffed doll that her Sis had given her, the one in which she'd hidden the firing key for the _Hope._ In the confusion of the moment Prairie had forgotten that she'd still been holding it. Somehow the toy had managed to slip behind her and prevent her head from smashing into the wall during her tumble. In that instant, all of Prairie's doubts about firing the _Sword of Hope_ disappeared.

_When they insisted on having that..._thing_ installed, I hated it...how could such weapon cause anything but pain to the world? I swore I'd never use it, that nothing would ever be worth the destruction it would cause...but when I saw that Legion ship in front of us, about to wipe everything and everyone I cared about off the face of the planet, I just..._

_I was angry. Angry at Legion for hurting my ship, angry at the mavericks for hurting my friends, and angry at myself for putting everyone in danger. I gave the order to fire out of hate, because I wanted them to die. I hated them for trying to take everything away from me. But is it right for me to sacrifice everyone on that ship just to save the people on this one? Who gave me the right to decide who lives and who dies?_

Prairie stared at the doll in her hands, its red face smiling up at her, frozen in the same smile it always had. _I wasn't sure at the time, but...after I gave the order, Sis protected me. She knew I had to do it. Sometimes we have to do what we must to protect the things important to us, even if it's something we hate...Sis taught me that. I still wish I hadn't used that abominable weapon, but...I have no regrets._

"Status report!" Prairie called to her operators as she returned to her Commander's chair.

"Enemy ship destroyed, remaining fragments are falling to earth as we speak," Marguerite said, relief clear in her voice. Tulip, however, sounded far more worried as she gave her report.

"That shot overloaded large portions of the power distribution systems. Reactor output is down to eighteen percent, relays to most of our weapons and propulsion systems are malfunctioning - they're probably melted. It'll take time to replace them. We have barely enough power to sustain our current altitude. I think we can get about ten percent thrust out of engines one and four, which means we'll enter friendly airspace in approximately...twenty minutes."

"I'm not detecting any other signs of pursuit," Gardenia chimed in. "Even at that speed we should make it there easily."

"Good. Inform the crew to begin repairs," Prairie ordered just as Marguerite's screen flashed a warning.

"Incoming object from the falling Legion ship! It's coming in fast!" the operator announced as she tapped a few keys on her console to begin a scan. "I'm picking up a biometal signature...it's Model H! He's heading for the landing deck!"

"What?!" Prairie exclaimed, then pushed the button on her comm panel for the landing deck loudspeaker. "Everyone watch out! Aeolus is heading your way!" 

* * *

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Model A asked.

"Of course I'm sure!" Ashe replied, still A-Trans'd into Atlas. "I remember that map like the back of my hand, and I'm sure the launcher is right behind this door!" She powered up one of her Knuckle Busters and slammed it into the aforementioned door, blasting it off its hinges. To her dismay, the room did not contain the boarding arm launcher - instead it was simply another empty room.

"I told you we were lost!" Model A whined.

"Damnit, I must have gotten off the elevator at the wrong floor. I know the launcher is here, it's just either one floor above or below us."

"A lot of good that does us now! We definitely don't have time to run back across the entire ship, especially if you you missed any mavericks on the way here."

"Relax, Model A. Remember, this is me you're dealing with." Ashe charged her Busters again and aimed at the ceiling. "If I can't find the path, I'll make a new one!"

Several Megaton Crushes later, there was a significant dent in the metal plate ceiling of the room. "There! That should be enough. A-Trans!" Ashe said, then burst through the damaged ceiling with a Rockit attack from Buckfire. Taking a quick look around her new surroundings, Ashe was proud to note that she had been correct - she was now in the boarding arm launch room...along with four Galleons and two turret mechaniloids. They had been milling about in confusion until Ashe appeared, at which point they all took aim and fired at their newly acquired target.

Unable to move Buckfire's body in time, Ashe winced as she took a few direct hits from plasma rifles. She then immediately took action, punching the nearest Galleon within arm's reach with one of her powerful fists, shattering its head. She turned her other first towards the remaining Galleons and fired a triplet of Burning Arrows, all of which hit their targets - the three remaining Galleons burst into flames, then crumpled into piles of smoldering wreckage.

Ashe quickly deactivated her A-Trans and dodged sideways as the two remaining turrets fired another volley at her, this time missing the mark completely. The nimble Hunter fired a Reflect Laser at the closest turret which pierced straight through it, then ricocheted off the wall and bounced back through the second turret. Both mechaniloids instantaneously exploded into scrap, leaving Ashe alone in the room.

"Well, now that I've taken care of that, let's get the hell out of here!" She ran over to the boarding arm control panel and tapped a few keys. "Looks like you have to close the hatch first, then launch it from out here...that shouldn't be a problem."

Suddenly, a thunderous boom echoed through the room, following immediately by the loudest, shrillest ear-splitting screech Ashe had ever heard. She reflexively threw her hands over her ears to try and block the sound, but it didn't do any good. Just as she thought for sure that her ears were bleeding, the noise stopped as abruptly as it had started, leaving a silence even more deafening.

While Ashe had absolutely no idea what could have caused such a horrendous sound, she could only spare a moment to think on it. Every second she remained on this ship it was getting further and further away from the Guardian Base - she had to act quickly.

Ashe A-Trans'd into Argoyle and used her power to summon Urgoyle. She then rolled herself into the container of the boarding arm while directing the Urgoyle ghost over to the control panel. After a bit of trial and error she managed to get the shutter to close, then successfully launched the arm. It was hard to tell where she'd fired it though - she'd never really gotten the hang of controlling two bodies at once, and sometimes it was very confusing.

_Well, only one way to find out. I'll just go out and take a look._

Shifting once again into the form of Atlas, Ashe blew the shutter off of the boarding arm with one smash from a Knuckle Buster, then swung herself up onto the top of the container to get a good look at where she was heading.

Ashe discovered that she was, in fact, heading towards the Guardian Base. Unfortunately, the Base was a lot farther away than she'd thought it would be.

"I don't think this thing can reach that far!" Model A said, echoing her own thoughts.

"At least they aren't getting any farther away," Ashe pointed out, noting that only two engines were active, and then only just. "Looks like they got a few new holes punched in them too. Maybe it's got something to do with that weird sound we heard earlier?" "Let's worry about that later, right now we need to figure out how to get an extra hundred feet of distance out of this bucket of metal!"

"Right." Ashe turned and fired several shots from her Knuckle Busters at the long chain of metal balls that tethered the boarding arm to the ship, breaking it apart and severing the container from the rest of the arm. They were now freely launching through the sky towards the starboard side of the Guardian Base.

"There. Now that we aren't being dragged back by that cable we should be able to get at least a little closer - we'll just have to fly ourselves the rest of the way. If the Base keeps going that slowly we should be able to catch up, right?"

"I sure hope so," Model A prayed.

* * *

"There he is!" Vent yelled as he spotted the rapidly approaching figure of Aeolus. He immediately charged his X-Busters and unleashed several blasts, but Aeolus had plenty of time to lazily dodge them as he sped towards the ship.

"It's no use Vent," Zero told him. "Just hold your fire and get ready to attack when he lands. We should be able to take him out quickly if we coordinate ourselves."

Aeolus landed with a crash on the deck in front of them, his two short blades drawn and ready, his face an unreadable, emotionless mask. Immediately Vent opened fire with two X-Buster shots while Aile dashed forward to engage him in melee combat. Aeolus stood his ground until the last second before both attacks reached him, then dashed forward in an incredible burst of speed and evaded them both.

"Get back here!" Aile yelled as she used her hoverjets to make an abrupt change of direction to chase after her opponent, while Vent began charging another pair of buster shots. Neither of them noticed the energy Aeolus was storing up - but Zero did.

"Watch out!" he tried to warn, but it was too late. As Aeolus sped towards him Zero saw a look of contempt on his face as the green Mega Man spun around and swung both blades, releasing his stored energy as a swarm of Plasma Cyclones. Caught off guard, neither of the siblings were able to evade the entire attack and were struck by the debilitating tornadoes, momentarily stunned as their sensory systems overloaded.

Aeolus swiftly spun back around and sped towards Zero again, leading his attack with a hard downward slash. "He said I should eliminate you first," the Chosen One said without emotion, like he were simply stating a fact, as his blades began to cut and slice in a deadly dance of death.

Zero tried to defend himself against the flurry of blows, but with only one arm and his energy reserves running out it only took a few seconds for Aeolus to get past his guard. He felt the first hit as a burning in his chest as he failed to move back fast enough, allowing one of the two short energy blades to make a shallow cut. Shortly afterward he received an elbow to the face, which dazed him enough that he left Aeolus the opening he needed to drive his knee hard into the already painful wound in his middle. As Zero crumpled to the ground he felt something hard hit him in the back of the head before the world went completely black.

* * *

Aile watched helplessly as Zero fell limply to the ground after Aeolus' merciless assault.

"Zero!" Vent yelled angrily beside her as the effects of the Plasma Tornadoes dissipated.

"Calm yourself!" Model X said to his biomatch. "Model Z's biolink is still active. Zero will be fine, but not if you lose control and do something reckless! Now concentrate and work together!"

"Model X is right!" Aile said as she dashed towards Aeolus. "I'll keep him busy up close while you back me up!"

"That wasn't quite what I meant," Model X remarked quietly to himself, then the battle was joined.

Aile opened with a forward thrust at Aeolus' feet. When he dodged sideways she quickly reversed her hold on her trident and slashed across at his chest, an attack witch he easily parried with one sword while bringing the other around to slash at Aile's head. The attack sliced through empty air as the blue Mega Man quickly fired the jets on her feet and shot backwards, the blade zipping by only a hair's breadth from her nose. She readied her weapon to meet Aeolus as he charged after her, but he was forced to retreat when Vent fired his X-Busters through the air between them.

"Aile, if you can hit him with my trident in Overdrive form it might slow him down a little," Model L advised.

"I know, but easier said than done," Aile replied.

"Annoying worm!" Aeolus spat, then sped towards Vent. "Do not interfere!"

Aile fired her maneuvering jets sideways and clashed with the green Mega Man before he was halfway to Vent. "You aren't getting away from me!"

Aeolus' face remained void of emotion as he began another series of swift sword attacks. Hissing sounds and flashes of light filled the air as his two short swords connected with the ends of Aile's trident repeatedly in a deadly test of strength and speed. Vent looked on, frustrated that he couldn't get a clear shot at Aeolus without endangering his sister.

The two Mega Men fought intensely until Aile parried an extremely fierce attack from Aeolus, the recoil from the blow forcing a distance between the two. Seeing an opportunity, Vent fired his charged Buster shots at Aeolus, who barely noticed them in time to leap into the air. He hovered there for a moment as he glared over at Vent.

"I tire of you!" he yelled with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He turned back to Aile and rushed down at her, the jets on his back firing at full power, one sword held out in front of him and the other held back.

Not willing to test her brute strength against Aeolus' momentum, Aile hopped backward as the green Mega Man slammed his first blade into the deck right where she had just been standing. He brought his second blade down only a split second later, missing Aile completely.

Seeing her chance, Aile activated her Overdrive and dashed forward, raising her trident over her head for a powerful downward slash. She was caught completely off guard when Aeolus's blades flashed upward in a cross, sending a Sonic Boom straight into her chest. The girl gasped in pain and staggered backward, falling to one knee as the Overdrive system backfired and disabled her defenses for a moment. Knowing she was vulnerable, Aile instinctively threw her trident up in front of her to defend against Aeolus' follow-up attack...

...but it never came.

Instead, Aile watched in dismay as Aeolus sped towards Vent. The blue Mega Man fired off his charged shots at the approaching enemy, but Aeolus nimbly dodged them both without even slowing down. He looked like a green blur as he reached Vent and opened with a quick flurry of sword attacks. Vent tried to defend himself, but without a beam weapon to parry with he was forced to rely on his dodging skills. He fired a few shots from his X-Buster as a distraction, but since they weren't charged Aeolus simply took them without even flinching as he continued his assault.

Just as Aile was getting back on her feet to go aid her brother, Vent managed to get enough power stored to fire one charged shot at Aeolus' head. Aeolus ducked under the shot, then brought one of his swords up in a vicious slice. Vent hopped backwards to avoid it, but before he could touch the ground Aeolus kicked him fiercely in the chest. As Vent staggered to regain his balance, Aeolus unleashed the energy he'd been storing up in his other blade into another Plasma Tornado. Vent was too close to have any hope of dodging and took the attack head-on. With his sensory systems overloading, Vent was helpless to save himself as the force of the tornado gust knocked him over the starboard railing of the ship, sending him flying into the sky beyond.

"_VENT!"_ Aile screamed as her brother disappeared from view, plummeting towards the ground thousands of feet below.

* * *

Zero opened his eyes and saw nothing but a bleak, featurelessly white landscape stretching out before him. Feeling odd, he looked down at himself and discovered he was back in his old body once again.

"I guess this means I'm back inside the biometal..."

"Correct," his own voice said from behind him. Zero turned around and saw something he hadn't expected - the other Zero, the one who represented Model Z.

"Model Z? How are you here? And why am I here? The last thing I remember is getting my butt handed to me by that Aeolus kid..." Zero trailed off, puzzled.

"Slow down, one thing at a time," Model Z said with a light chuckle. "First off, I'm not really Model Z. I am merely a fragment of Model Z that still exists within you, struggling to maintain its sense of self. Given time I will slowly integrate with your thoughts completely and fade away, at which point the being you refer to as Model Z really will cease to exist.

"Second, you're here because you passed out. Normally, when the host body of a biometal loses consciousness the biolink with the host is broken and the biometal reverts to its natural state. However, in your case it is the consciousness of the biometal that is driving the body - so when the body is incapacitated, so is the biometal.

"This is what it's like to be inside a biometal as it lays dormant - cold, empty, and lifeless. The only thing here is your own mind, your own thoughts, your own perceptions. You only appear here in that form because that is the form you perceive to be the real you - it has no real physical meaning.

"In short, you're here because you lost."

"I see," Zero said, slumping his shoulders. "Then it's all up to those kids, now. When I wake up again I'll just be another biometal fragment, and my body will have reverted back to a pile of Galleon scraps." He sighed in defeat, but Other-Zero shook his head, a small smile on his lips.

"Not quite. I am currently using what little of my own abilities I still possess to maintain the biometal's link with the body you're using."

Zero returned Other-Zero's smile when he heard this news. "I guess I owe you one, then. I'll try not to screw up like that again."

"I didn't do this just for you," Other-Zero said, abruptdly adopted a more serious tone. "I promised a very brave, very courageous man that, so long as I existed, I would use my power to protect the two people who were worth more to him than life itself. However, as we lie unconscious on the sidelines those two people fight for their lives right in front of me, and I am in danger of breaking that promise.

"Now that I've given my life to aid you, I no longer have the strength necessary to protect anyone. The responsibility now falls to you, as the one who inhabits this biometal, to uphold my vow. We both owe it to Giro to protect that which he gave his life for.

"Zero, I've used the last of my strength to maintain this biolink so that you can fulfill the promise I made. So long as there is breath left in this body, you _will_ protect Vent and Aile, no matter the cost to yourself. How can you expect to defeat any great evils if you can't even defend the people right in front of you? The people that you swore to protect?

"So wake up and fight, Zero. The enemy stands before you - rise up and defeat it, as you always have."

* * *

After staring over the side of the ship for a few moments with an anguished look on her face, Aile's features contorted with rage as she lifted her trident and charged with a wordless scream.

"Aile, calm down!" Model L yelled at her. "Control yourself!"

_"He took him!"_ Aile screamed as she hacked viciously at Aeolus, who nimbly dodged the attack. _"He took him away from me!"_

"That pathetic excuse for a Mega Man didn't deserve to be a Chosen One any more than you do, you worthless rat," Aeolus sneered from a short distance away.

_"SHUT UP!"_ Aile recklessly rushed her opponent again, unleashing another powerful series of attacks that forced Aeolus to retreat. "Don't you _dare_ talk about my brother like that!"

"Your brother, was he? Interesting. I wonder, is the entire family as fragile and pathetic as you two?" He sneered. "Hmph, what a waste of life."

Another enraged scream pierced the air as Aile renewed her assault. She and Aeolus danced the length and breadth of the landing deck as the green Mega Man was pressed to the limits of his abilities to defend himself from Aile's twin-bladed onslaught.

"Aile, you need to concentrate!" Model L scolded as Aile's attacks became increasingly more reckless. "He's only trying to anger you further to goad you into making a mistake, then he'll kill you too! Do you want Vent's sacrifice to be vain, Aile? Is that what you want?"

_"I want him to DIE!"_ Rage burned hotly in Aile's voice as she activated her Overdrive and aimed for a killing blow - which was just what Aeolus had been waiting for. He sidestepped Aile's attack and slashed down with both blades, releasing another point-blank flurry of Plasma Tornadoes. Blinded by her anger, Aile was totally unprepared to defend herself and screamed in pain as her Overdrive system backfired. Momentarily stunned by the electricity coursing through her systems, and defenseless due to the overloading Overdrive system, Aile collapsed to her hands and knees, completely helpless.

As a shadow crept across the ground in front of her, Aile could barely find the strength to look up and see Aeolus standing over her, both of his swords held over his head, pointing at her.

"Hmph. If I'd known it would be this easy to get rid of all of you I wouldn't have wasted an entire fleet trying to do what I could alone. Goodbye, worm," he said, then thrust his twin blades downward with all his might.

All Aile saw was a red blur and a flash of light as Zero appeared in front of her, his Z-Saber raised in one hand, blocking Aeolus' deathblow. Zero's arm shook with the force of the green Mega Man's attack, but the two short blades didn't budge the slightest.

"You worthless old relic!" Aeolus yelled, pushing as hard as he could on his swords. "Don't you know when it's your time to give up and die?!"

"I made a promise to protect this girl with my life," Zero said, his voice ringing with determination. As Aile looked up from her place on the ground, she caught a glimpse at Zero's eyes, and had to catch her breath. She could see...something, in them. She couldn't put it into words, but it was powerful. "So long as there is breath in this body, I will _not_ let you hurt her!" He kicked out fiercely with one foot, forcing Aeolus to release his sabers and jump backward. Zero remained poised over the disabled Aile, ready to defend her as she regained control of her body.

Zero allowed a look of disgust to spread across his face. "What happened to you, Harpuia?!" He yelled. "You were once humanity's greatest ally, but now you're treating them like worthless garbage!"

"That's because they _are_ garbage!" Model H yelled back angrily. "Humans are worthless trash, a plague on this world!"

"Model H, you don't mean that," Model L said incredulously.

"I do! We've been fighting for centuries to protect them, to shelter them, to give them equality! And how do they repay us? By throwing it all away, time and time again! Humanity is its own worst enemy, and as long as it exists this planet and every living thing on it will suffer!"

"What are you talking about?" Zero replied, a touch of anger creeping into his voice. "We fought to create a world where reploids and humans could live together peacefully, as equals. And now that we've finally found it, you want to throw it all away? Was everything we fought for worth so little to you?!"

"Yes!" Model H replied vehemently. "It was all _worthless!_ You speak of 'peace' and 'equality'? Stop lying to yourselves and look around! How are humans and reploids made equal in this pathetic little world of yours? Humans are given the strength and durability of reploids, while reploids are forced to give up _immortality_! Humans only take, while reploids are forced to give. And for what? To make humans feel better about themselves? Why?! Why must reploids always be forced to make sacrifices for the sake of humans?

"Because humans are worthless, pathetic beings who can't do anything for themselves! They rely on reploids to take care of them, support them, to give up their very _lives_ so that they can feel better about their pathetic lot in life!

"This is what we fought for, Zero! This is the fruit of our labors! This is what the humans have made of the world we fought and _died_ to create!"

"And you think Thomas' insane plan to unleash the Maverick Virus will make things any better?!" Zero demanded, keeping his voice level. "What good will come of a world full of bloodthirsty, mindless mavericks?"

"It will be an end to everything!" Aeolus cried triumphantly before Model H could respond. "Humans and reploids will turn on each other, destroying themselves until there's nothing left! Then Master Thomas will create a new world from the ashes, a world where there is neither humans nor reploids, but only humanoids! Led by Master Thomas and we, his Mega Men, the new world will prosper as the old one never could!"

Zero narrowed his eyes, studying the young Chosen One as Aile climbed to her feet beside him. "Is that how you feel as well, Harpuia?"

"Yes. He is my Chosen because he feels the same as I, that humanity is a parasite upon this world that needs to be eradicated before paradise can be attained, and that we must be there to guide this new world on the correct path!"

Zero shook his head sadly, his Z-Saber still poised to defend himself. "Someone else spoke words just like those once before. He felt that the world was rotten, that humanity and reploids were like a plague, suffocating themselves with their own faults and mistakes. He thought he was better than everyone else, that he could turn the world into a better place, one that would prosper under his supervision.

"In reality, he was a madman with a crazed lust for power! The suffering endured by everyone else in his world meant nothing to him, as long as he had the power to do anything he wanted! He killed millions of people and reploids whose only crime was to live, just because he decided they needed to die! He caused such an unbearable tragedy that it was wiped from the face of history, lest it ever be repeated again!

"His name was Weil, and you sound exactly like him!"

"Don't compare me to that fool!" Model H hissed. "Weil was a madman out to satisfy his own greed. We are doing this to make the world a better place, to free it from this rotten husk it has become! Using the unlimited power and knowledge of Legion and the Sage Trinity, Thomas will reset this pathetic world and cleanse it of the taint of humanity before creating a new order, free of the bonds of the past!"

"An order that he controls!" Zero shouted defiantly. "He's just using you, Harpuia! Can't you see that? Once he creates his new world, with him as its God, he'll get rid of you like the rest of the 'worthless trash' he considers our society! He's using you, he's using Legion, and he's using the Maverick Virus, just like Weil did!"

"Leave the past behind, Harpuia," Model L said quietly, her tone full of sadness and regret. "Don't try and turn Legion into another Neo Arcadia. Please don't let that terrible chapter of history repeat itself. Please, Harpuia," she pleaded.

Model H was stung into silence. Sensing his biometal's loss of words, Aeolus stepped in. "Enough talk! We've wasted enough time on you, prepare to-augh!" He was forced to break off his threat when a pair of massive plasma bursts hit him in the side. "What was-" he trailed off as all four turned to see the source of the attack. Aile's eyes widened in surprise.

"VENT!" she yelled, relief ringing in her voice as she saw her brother standing on the deck, his X-Buster pointed at Aeolus' back. "You're alive! How did you-"

"I think your brother's falling for me, Aile," came Ashe's voice as the Hunter flipped herself over the deck railing, landing gracefully on the deck. "I was climbing my way up the side of the ship and he fell right into my lap! I mean, I'm flattered you guys were worried, but you didn't have to throw the poor guy overboard to check up on me." She drew her two guns and pointed them at Aeolus. "Now, what do you say we teach this arrogant little brat a thing or two about respect?"

Aeolus grit his teeth and gripped his swords tightly. "I'll teach you to talk to me like that, you little-" he began, but was cut off by the voice of his biometal.

"We're falling back," Model H said emotionlessly.

"What?" Aeolus questioned, sounding confused.

"I said we're falling back. Retreat to our remaining ship."

"But I can easily-"

"I said _fall back!_ Do as I say or I'll leave you here and go back myself!"

A brief flash of frustration mixed with rage played across Aeolus' features, then the green Mega Man leapt into the air and activated his hoverjets.

"Don't think this is anywhere close to being over!" He yelled as he sped off towards the only Legion ship that was still in the air, quite some distance away.

"Hmph, what a sissy," Ashe said as she holstered her guns and crossed her arms. "I was looking forward to a dishing out a good whooping."

"You'll get your chance," Zero said solemnly, "we've got a long road ahead of us." He took a step towards the elevator, then collapsed as one of his legs buckled beneath him. Aile barely managed to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Zero, take it easy! You're about to fall apart at the seams," Aile said, worry etched on her face as she examined Zero's beat up body, but still mixed with the relief she felt that her brother was all right. Zero's weight was the only thing preventing her from rushing over to him.

"You're right, Aeolus really did a number on me. I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much use to anyone for a while," Zero said ruefully, then grinned. "Although, I never thought I'd live to see the day when _you_ rushed to catch me, Leviathan."

"You _didn't_ live to see it," the blue and white biometal quipped, not to be caught off guard. "Besides, that was entirely the girl's doing, not mine."

As the four companions headed back to the elevator as a group, Ashe nudged Vent in the side. "You were right," she said.

"About what?" Vent said, puzzled.

Ashe ran one hand through her ponytail. "All this time out on the deck dried my hair out nicely."

* * *

Author's Note:

Oh, how I do enjoy writing dialogue for Ashe. Yes, I was planning that line from the second I finished writing the end of part 11. I also got far too much enjoyment out of my "falling for me" pun than I should have any right to.

So I originally had Model H/Harpuia giving a vastly different speech with entirely different reasons why he was going to be a badguy, but then I forgot what it was before I could find a place to write it down :(. Regardless, I need him to be a badguy for a variety of reasons (which shall all be revealed at a much later time!) and I think this is still a pretty decent take on things. It's mostly based on his reaction to meeting Vent in the first ZX game, after you release him from Hivolt.

So now we know where Model F, H, and L stand, how about Model P? Well, interestingly enough, Model P made an appearance in the previous part (part 12). Why didn't I say anything about him? Because he's a _ninja._ What kind of ninja would let himself be seen, hmm? He'll make his appearance known when he's good and ready, and I guarantee you won't see it coming :D.

So, now that you've seen the _Sword_ in action, maybe you can see why I changed the name - it literally cut the Legion ship in two. Personally, I think "Light" is cooler, while "Sword" is more appropriate. I'm still torn. Reviews seem to indicate that people like "Light" better...anyone want to change their opinion? :)

This installment's title is the music that plays in the Floating Ruins stage of ZXA. Personally, I love this song, the weird woodwind-ish synth that plays the melody in the remastered track is awesome. Anyway, the music fits the chapter rather well, and it's especially fitting since Aeolus is the boss of the stage.

One non-chapter related thing I feel the need to mention is: where the hell is Grey? I've had like six people ask me that in reviews and/or PMs, so I'll just answer it here to set the record straight. Grey's alive and kicking somewhere in the world (in fact, I know exactly where he is right now) but he has nothing to do with the events of this story, so don't expect him to make an appearance. I've got nothing against the poor guy, I just don't have any room for him in my already convoluted plot. I do, however, have plans for him in another story that I may or may not ever get around to writing...see how I feel after I get this one done.

On a note related to that one, I've recently been bitten by a plot bunny that refuses to let go until I get it written out. It's going to be a short (I hope) MMZ oneshot similar in style and tone to the 'Stuffed Animals' piece I did a little while ago, but starring Zero and Ciel instead of Prairie and Giro. There will also be singing. Just a heads up for anyone who might be interested; expect to see it in the next week or two.

Thanks for reading, as always. Until next time!


	14. Part 14: Relief

Part 14: Relief

After placing the injured Zero in a bed under the watchful eye of Muguet, Aile retreated back to the quiet of her and Vent's little room before anyone could have an opportunity to ask her about the battle on the deck. She had a lot on her mind and didn't really want to talk to anyone just then. She didn't even bother to turn on the lights as she entered, only taking the time to throw Model L onto the nearby desk before she sat down on her bunk, flopping over onto her back and throwing an arm over her eyes with a heavy sigh. The computer display on the desk hummed to life as Model L clattered against the keyboard, the dim glow of the screen providing the room's only illumination as the door slid closed, shutting out the light from the hallway.

_I can't believe I lost so badly to that...that...upstart little jerk,_ Aile thought as she recalled the events of the battle in her mind. _I was handling the mavericks easy enough, but when he showed up it was like I was just some annoying little bug, barely worth the effort to swat me aside._ She pounded a fist on the bed in frustration. _Dammit, how could I be so...so...weak!_

After silently berating herself for a few moments, Aile felt like someone was watching her. She lifted her arm and opened her eyes to see Model L floating in the air just above her knees. "Let me guess. You're here to tell me how badly I screwed up?" She said grumpily.

"Why would I do that?" Model L replied, ignoring the harshness in the girl's tone. "You already know what you did wrong. There's hardly a need for me to point it out as well."

"Then leave me alone." Aile threw her arm back over her face to continue brooding in silence. "I don't feel like talking right now."

Model L didn't budge. "Hmph. If I'd known you were going to sit in a corner and sulk every time you lost, I'd have thought twice about making you my Chosen One."

"I am not sulking!" Aile bolted upright, her face coming within inches of the floating biometal as her head skimmed the bottom of the top bunk.

"Yes you are, and it's pathetic. I didn't think you were so weak that you'd give up the first time someone beat you in a fight."

"I am not weak!" Aile shouted angrily, though the slight quake in her voice told Model L that she wasn't as confident in that statement as she appeared.

"That's better," Model L said, bobbing up and down in the air. "Angry people are so much easier to talk to than depressed people.

"Now then, are you upset because Aeolus defeated you so easily? Or are you upset because 'you screwed up', as you so aptly described it?"

Model L's matter-of-fact tone helped to cool off Aile's sizzling temper. "A little bit of both, I guess," she replied with much better control of her voice.

"Everyone makes mistakes. Accept them, learn from them, and move on. I thought you would have learned that lesson by now."

"But I almost got both Vent and myself killed! I can't afford to make mistakes like that! If it weren't for Ashe and Zero we'd both be-"

"That's your problem, right there," Model L interrupted. "You think you need to do everything on your own, and if things go bad it's all your fault."

"If I hadn't been so stupid and reckless-"

"Be quiet, I wasn't finished." Model L said, rudely cutting her off. "I can't stand listening to people whine about their inadequacies when they could instead be working to rid themselves of them."

Seeing that she'd gotten her point across, Model L softened her tone as she continued. "Now as I was about say, you are in entirely the wrong mindset. Aile, nobody is perfect - everyone makes mistakes. That is a fact of life. But that is also why you aren't fighting this battle alone. When one member of a team makes a mistake, the other members of the team are there to support them. That's what it means to be part of a team. You rely on your teammates to help you when you screw up, because they're relying on you to cover for them too."

"But it was my fault that-"

"Shut up and stop interrupting me! It doesn't matter whose fault it was! Aile, battle is a thing of the moment. You can't afford to spend your time worrying about why something happened, or think about what you should have done. What's important is that you deal with the consequences and learn from the experience so that the same thing doesn't happen again. A warrior's worth is not measured in terms of how many mistakes they make - it's measured by how quickly they learned from those mistakes, how quickly they can adapt to any situation they find themselves in. Those are the warriors that everyone wants to have by their side, the ones who live the longest, because they have the most experience and are capable of dealing with the largest number of possibilities in battle."

"So what you're saying is, I should listen to you more often," Aile said with a smirk. Model L floated forward and tapped her lightly on the forehead.

"That's the first intelligent thing you've said since we started this little talk," she said, satisfied that she was getting through to the girl. "I'm here to help you Aile, and not just with my power as a biometal. I've been around for a long time and done a lot of stupid things. I'm more than happy to keep you from making the same mistakes I did, but first you need to learn to accept your failures or, in the long run, they'll just drag you down."

"Oh come on, I thought you were perfect," Aile joked, slowly returning to good humor.

"If I were perfect I wouldn't have died, my dear. You think I like being a floating hunk of metal? No, I made my fair share of mistakes, some of which...well, I won't get into it. Suffice to say they had much more...permanent consequences than anything you've done."

"Weren't you part of a team? You talk about these things like you know about it all personally. Wasn't there anyone watching out for you when you made your mistakes?"

"Yes, but...sometimes everyone makes the same mistake. At that point, there's really one thing to do." Model L was suddenly very solemn and sincere. "Sometimes, Aile, all you can do is accept responsibility and do everything in your power to atone for what you've done...no matter the cost."

Feeling the sadness Model L was hiding behind her words, Aile decided she shouldn't probe any further. "Well then, I guess I'll just have to become stronger so that I don't make the same mistakes you did."

"Exactly! I'm glad to see you catching on so quickly. I knew you were a bright one," Model L said, sounding much more like her usual self. "Moving on. Now that you've come to grips with the fact that you screwed up and let Aeolus beat you, do you know _why_ he beat you?"

"Because I got angry," Aile said dejectedly. "I stopped concentrating on what I was doing and got reckless. I couldn't help it! When I saw Vent go over the side of the ship I just...I just felt so angry! Angry at Aeolus for taking my brother away, and angry at myself for letting him. All I could think about was how much I hated him and wanted him to pay for it!" Heat began creeping into Aile's voice as she thought back on those moments.

"I know exactly how you felt, Aile, but you can't allow your emotions to cloud your judgement in battle like that. I know it's hard, but you can't allow your feelings to dictate your actions. That's how Aeolus beat you - he used your emotions against you and forced you to make a mistake because you weren't thinking clearly. It had nothing to do with whether he was stronger than you or not, he simply remained in control of himself while you flew off the handle."

"Well I'm sorry for not being an emotionless robot!" Aile yelled, frustrated. "I can't just turn off all my feelings and feel nothing while I cleave through armies of mavericks like Zero does!"

Model L slammed into Aile's chest so hard that she fell backward onto the bed again. "Hey, what was that for?" "Don't you _ever_ let me hear you say that again!" Model L hissed, her tone seething with barely-suppressed anger. "You think Zero is some sort of emotionless killer? You couldn't be further from the truth! You have no idea how Zero feels whenever he enters battle - neither do I, for that matter. But I assure you, he is as far from being 'emotionless' as you can possibly get."

"But he looks so calm when he fights," Aile said, confused. "His face is always so empty and he moves like a machine, it's like he's just chopping wood. He looks like he's killing things just because they're there, and they're in his way."

"That's because you're looking at his face and how he moves. Zero has learned how to master his emotions and use them to make himself stronger. Aile, feelings are only a weakness when you let them overrule your reason and break your concentration. If you can learn to control them and use them to your advantage you'll find that there are very few people in this world who will stand a chance against you.

"If you doubt me, the next time you see Zero fight, look very carefully at his eyes. Someone once said that a person's eyes are like a window into their soul. I think that if you look carefully enough, you'll see exactly what it is Zero feels every time he swings that saber of his. Trust me, if he were the unfeeling, merciless killer you think he is, he'd have died a long time ago and never gotten back up."

Aile thought back to that strange feeling she'd gotten after looking into Zero's eyes when he protected her from Aeolus' killing blow on the deck. Though he'd spoken in a level voice, Zero's eyes had been anything but emotionless, though she hadn't recognized it for what it was at the time. _So that's why I felt something so...powerful...in his voice back then, and how he moved so quickly to defend me despite his injuries. That...makes a lot more sense, now..._

"I believe you," Aile said finally, then sighed. "I know I still have a lot to learn. I just have to do it fast enough that I don't get anyone killed."

"Correct. Unfortunately, I'm not the one you should be asking about this sort of thing - I was never good at the whole 'fight without emotion' deal." Model L admitted. "You'd be much better off asking Zero about it."

"Oh really?" Aile asked, surprised.

"Why do you think he always beat me?" Model L laughed. "Every time we fought I couldn't help but get excited at the challenge, the thrill of combat that only Zero could give me. Fighting him was the only time I really felt alive, the only time I felt the ice surrounding my empty heart melt away, if only for a moment. Even though I always lost, it made me happy to know that next time I'd be stronger, and that maybe I'd finally be able to defeat him!" The biometal finished with a rueful sigh, lost in her own thoughts of the past.

Aile felt there was something else behind her words, something she was feeling, but not saying. She managed to summon up enough courage to ask, "Model L...did you...love him?"

There was a long silence as Model L considered her words. "No," she finally replied, "I didn't. I loved the way he made me feel, and the thrill and excitement he gave me when we fought. But as one of the four Generals, I was not programmed to understand love, and thus had a very weak grasp on what exactly the word meant. Perhaps I felt like I loved him at the time, but I can see now that it was nothing of the sort. No, it would be more accurate to say I held a deep respect for Zero's abilities as a warrior, as well as for his strength of character, and resolve to do what he felt was right, no matter what obstacles were in his way - myself included. He was...what I would aspire to be, were I still alive."

"I see," Aile said quietly, then nodded. "I think I understand Zero a bit better now, and you too. Thanks for telling me that. It means a lot to me, really."

"Yes, well, let's just keep this between us girls, shall we? I've spent two hundred years forging my reputation as a cold-hearted witch, I'd hate to throw it all away now."

"Of course!" Aile said cheerily. "Your secret's safe with me!"

She grabbed ahold of Model L and smiled, feeling refreshed as the last vestiges of her doubt and melancholy washed away, replaced by a fierce determination to become stronger and a renewed resolve to protect everyone important to her. She also knew that Model L was no longer just her partner in combat - she was her friend as well.

"I wonder where Vent went off to..." Aile thought to herself out loud, abruptly changing the subject. Model L barked a laugh.

"I should think that's obvious. Haven't you noticed it yet?"

"Noticed what?" Aile said, clueless.

Model L sighed. "Forget what I said about you being a bright one."

* * *

"...so Aile went to put Zero directly into Muguet's care while we came here to report to you," Vent finished. Prairie nodded as she thought over the events that had taken place on the landing deck, as Vent had just described to her.

"So, how's the ship doing?" Ashe spoke up from her place beside him.

"Not very well, unfortunately," Prairie replied with a shake of her head. "Firing the _Hope_ overloaded a lot of systems that we can't repair until we land and do a full reactor shutdown. Luckily we're only a few miles out from Cygnus base, but with our damaged power systems it'll take us at least forty minutes to get there. Silure tells me that Cygnus has the facilities and personnel necessary to get the job done, but it'll take time."

"Sweet!" Ashe pumped a fist in the air in excitement. "Time off!"

"Maybe for you," Prairie replied with a rueful grin, "but some of us have work to do whether the ship is running or not. I've got to spread the word about what's happening in Legion and make sure nobody in the Innerpeace government gets infected. It's going to be one hell of a job keeping this virus contained, but we've got to try."

"Did you learn anything from the data on the Legion servers?" Vent asked.

"No. Honestly, we haven't really had that much time to look through it it, what with all that's been going on around here. It doesn't look like we'll have an opportunity any time soon, either."

"Totally understandable," Ashe said. A thoughtful looked flashed across her features for a moment, then she nodded to herself, as if deciding something. "Well, how about I take a look at it? After all that excitement I could go for a bit of relaxing, non-life-threatening research in the comfort of my room. Besides, I hate sitting around feeling useless when there's so much work to get done, and I'm afraid I'd just get in the way if I tried to help fix anything. I've always been better at blowing things apart than putting them back together."

"Yes, well, there are always times when both are necessary, and we're glad to have you around for those times when we need things blown up," Prairie said with a good-natured smile. She reached over to the keypad of her command console and tapped a few keys as she continued. "I'll give you access to the database files from the terminal in the quarters I assigned you earlier. Vent, I'll give you and Aile access as well in case either of you find yourself with some free time. Your priority should be any information you can find concerning the Maverick Virus - if you find anything, let me know immediately."

"Sounds like a plan," Vent said with a nod, then changed the subject. "Prairie, about Zero...he's really pushing himself too hard. We need to find something better for him to Megamerge with before he manages to really get himself in trouble."

Prairie sighed. "You let me worry about Zero, Vent. I'll go pay him a visit as soon as I can get away from all this." She motioned around the command room. "I'm sure that between the two of us we'll be able to work something out that doesn't involve him falling apart all over my ship.

"Now, unless there's something else you urgently need to tell me, get out of my command room. I have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in."

"Yes ma'am," Vent replied with a salute and a sympathetic grin, then spun on his heel and headed out the door. Ashe smiled cheerfully, gave Prairie a little wave, then followed after him.

"So, you're really going to go looking through all that data for clues, are you?" Vent asked dryly as the Hunter girl caught up with him. "I never took you for the sit-down-and-read type of girl."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Ashe said indignantly. "Just because I like to blow things up doesn't mean I don't enjoy a peaceful, relaxing afternoon without explosions every once in a while. I'll have you know I'm one of the most ladylike girls you'll ever have the privilege of meeting, you uncouth barbarian." She stuck her nose in the air to accentuate her point.

"Whatever you say, m'lady," Vent replied with mock sincerity. "Either way, it was nice of you to offer. I know Prairie wants to look through that data herself but she really isn't going to have time to do it now."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't kidding, what I said back there. I can't stand sitting around doing nothing while everyone around me is working their butts off, especially with so much at stake. If reading through boring piles of database information is the most useful thing I can do around here, then that's what I'll do." Then a thoughtful look appeared on her face. "Although there is one problem."

"Hmm? What's that?"

"I forget how to get back from my room from here," Ashe said with a sheepish grin. "We were kind of a in a hurry when we left, I didn't see which way you were dragging me - and I don't really know my way around here very well to begin with." She scratched the top of her head theatrically. "In fact, now that I think of it, I don't even remember the room number."

"I remember where it was, want me to show you?" Vent offered.

"Oh, would you? That would be great!" Ashe exclaimed happily. "What a gentlemanly thing to do! There might be hope for you yet," she teased. Vent simply rolled his eyes as they approached the command level's elevator.

"Room two three seven, I think it was." He pushed the second floor button. "The first digit tells you what floor it's on, the second is which hall it's in," he explained. "Once you're in the right hall, all the odd-numbered rooms are on one side and all the even numbered ones on the other."

"Makes sense, I guess," Ashe said with a shrug. "It's just not something I'm used to. The living areas back in Hunter's Base were anything but organized. It was basically just a whole bunch of little one-room shacks that were thrown up wherever people felt like building them. Whenever you need a place to stay for a while you just find an empty one, toss your stuff in it, put something heavy in front of the door, and call it home until your next job comes along. If you need something more permanent there's always apartments and stuff for rent in Legion, but I never really saw the point."

"Wow, that sounds pretty rough. Aile and I have always had a place to call home; first with our mother, then with Giro, and now with the Guardians. I never thought about what it would be like to be without one."

Ashe shrugged nonchalantly. "Can't miss what you never had," she said, casually dismissing the issue with a wave. Despite her brushing it away so easily, Vent couldn't help but feel sympathy for the girl's situation.

The elevator door let out a short beep, then slid open. Vent motioned for her to enter first, eliciting a comedic gasp of surprise from Ashe.

"Oh my, and chivalrous, too! If I didn't know better I'd think you were trying to impress me." Ashe made a show of stepping daintily into the elevator, Vent chuckling as he followed after. Upon entering he turned to the control panel and pressed the button for the second floor, then leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, similar to how Ashe was standing across from him. There was another small beep as the door slid shut, then the elevator began its descent.

Without much else to talk about, the pair stood silently in the small elevator as it hummed smoothly down the elevator shaft. The ship wasn't incredibly large, consisting of only nine different floors. The command room was on the eighth floor, meaning they had quite a ways to go down. However, what was normally only a minute-long journey ended up being quite a bit longer. As the display over the door indicated they had just passed the fourth floor the elevator came to a jarring halt, knocking its two surprised passengers off balance. They both stumbled forward until they collided with one another in the middle of the tiny room in a flurry of arms and legs. Vent managed to get his feet under him first and reacted instinctively, grabbing Ashe by the forearms before she fell face first onto the floor.

"The hell was that?" the Hunter girl exclaimed as Vent helped her back up. "This elevator always slam on the brakes like that?"

"No, its definitely never done that before. It must have something to do with the damage to the power grid." Vent activated his communicator. "Prairie, you there?"

There was a short pause before an answer came through. "Vent? I'm rather busy here, what's wrong?"_She definitely sounds distracted,_ Vent thought to himself.

"Ashe and I are in the main elevator heading for the second floor and it just stopped moving. Any idea what's going on?"

"One moment, I'll check with Silure." Vent's communicator shut off abruptly as Prairie switched channels.

"Hopefully it won't take too long to get this straightened out," Vent thought aloud as he glanced around the tiny space. "I'd hate to have to bust our way out of here."

When the witty remark he was expecting from Ashe didn't materialize, Vent wandered his gaze down to look at her and saw her staring very intently at his hands, which he just then realized were still holding her by the arms.

"Gah!" Vent exclaimed as he quickly released his grip, feeling heat creep into his face. He smiled nervously as Ashe's eyes looked into his, an odd expression on her face. "Sorry. That wasn't very gentlemanly of me at all, was it?"

Ashe continued to look at him curiously. Just as she seemed about to say something, Vent's communicator activated again.

"He says he's already on it," Prairie's voice said through the device. "Something about overloading power relays I think. It was hard to tell between all the curses. Give him a few minutes to get it fixed and you'll be back on your way." She cut the transmission again before Vent could even thank her.

"Sounds like she's really busy," Vent stated, then sighed. "Looks like we'll be here for a little while."

"I guess," Ashe said absently. She was staring at the floor in front of her, deep in thought about something. She took a step back and sat down with her back against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest. After a moment she seemed to snap out of her funk, looking up at Vent with a little smile. "May as well get comfortable, then." She patted the ground beside her, indicating Vent should sit - which he did.

The pair continued to wait in silence, the minutes slowly ticking by. At one point Vent looked over at Ashe from the corner of his eye and saw that thoughtful look back on her face, but now it was speckled with hints of confusion. She seemed to be conflicted over something, though he had no idea what it could be. _It's none of my business either,_ he scolded himself. _Maybe talking will take her mind off of it?_

"So, you just flew in front of that Legion ship and crashed into the front of it, huh?" Vent said, forcing a lighthearted chuckle to try and lighten the mood. "You have to admit, that was a pretty crazy thing to do. You could have gotten hurt, or left behind."

The faraway look in Ashe's eyes disappeared as she replied. "Nah, I had the whole thing planned out all along. I was fine." She grinning up at him mischievously. "I just wanted to make you worry about me."

"Well you did a good job of that," Vent chuckled back at her. It was just then, thinking back on what had happened on the landing deck, that he came to a realization. _When I kept her from falling over the railing...I didn't really need to do that. She could have just flown herself back on board like she did when she caught me. Then why didn't she..._

"Hey Ashe, when you got knocked off the ship back there...I didn't really need to catch you, did I?" Vent asked.

Momentarily surprised by the question, Ashe was silent for a moment as she considered how to answer him. "Not really, no," she finally said, quietly turning her eyes towards the floor of the elevator as Vent looked down at her.

"Then why'd you thank me? It's not like you to miss an opportunity to brag about how awesome you are," Vent said with a chuckle, smiling to show he meant no offense.

"Vent..." Ashe sighed as she tried to think of the best way to explain herself. "I don't think you understand me as well as you think you do," she eventually said.

"Oh?" Vent replied, sounding slightly surprised. There was a pause before he continued. "Well, I'd like to understand you as well as I can, if you'll let me," he said quietly, his voice gentle and sincere.

Ashe regarded him sideways, weighing his words in her mind. She wasn't sure what was more surprising to her - that Vent wanted to know about her, or that she actually wanted to tell him. _Why does everything he do make me feel all weird inside? _Ashe closed her eyes as she continued her internal battle with her own feelings. _First he pulled me back over that railing, then he held me up when the elevator shook. Now he wants to learn more about who I am...I don't get it. Why am I so worried about what Vent thinks of me? I've never cared about stuff like that before, so why now, all of a sudden? And why him, of all people?_

She began slowly, still unsure of why she was saying anything at all. "When I was a kid, a group of Hunters rescued me from a maverick raid and brought me back to Hunter Base. They tried to find out who I was so they could find someone to take care of me, but nobody they asked had ever seen or heard of me before. I couldn't remember anything about what happened before that: who I was, who my family were, or where I was from - I still can't. So without anyone willing to look after me, I had to learn to take care of myself and how to live the life of a Hunter.

"It's a motto of the Hunter's Guild to take care of its own, but you're still in direct competition with each other to find the treasure first and get credit. That's how a Hunter gets by in life. Sure, I've teamed up with other Hunters before to go after some of the larger bounties, but it's still more like a free-for-all than being a part of a team. You have to always keep an eye on your backside and make sure that nobody's going to double-cross you and make off with all the loot after all the hard work is over. It's like...I won't get in your way, and you won't get in mine, you know?

"To even get jobs to begin with you have to prove you're good at what you do. You have to get your reputation out there, let people know who you are so that when they have a lead on something big they come to you first. It's just the way life as a Hunter works - you take care of yourself first, your friends second, and your allies third. For as far back as I can remember I've had to take care of myself because if I didn't, nobody else would."

Ashe shifted uncomfortably as she spoke - she wasn't used to talking about herself. Partly because nobody had ever really cared, and partly because she never really wanted to talk about it.

_Then why am I telling him all this?_ she asked herself again before continuing.

"When I'm fighting with you and Aile, and even Zero, it's...different. I don't have to worry about any of you stabbing me in the back, or chickening out and running away, or anything like that. The three of you are actually important to me. I want to do everything I can to protect you all, even more than I want to protect myself, and it feels really weird because I can't figure out why.

"When you grabbed my hand and pulled me back over the railing, it...surprised me. You were watching out for me, making sure I was all right. You helped me out when you thought I was in trouble even though you had plenty of your own problems to deal with. It was like...you actually cared about what happened to me out there. Nobody's really done that for me before."

"Of course I care about what happens to you, Ashe," Vent replied softly. "You're my friend. How could I not care about you?"

"Heh. My definition of a 'friend' was someone who you could almost trust not to screw you over...until I met all of you. The way everyone here looks out for everyone else, how you all work together to do great things without trying to compete for the fame and glory of success...it's all so strange to me. I had all these assumptions about how life worked so ingrained into my thinking that it never occurred to me that there could be people anywhere in the world who could be so kind, generous, and caring as the people I've met in my short time on the Guardian Base."

Vent's face turned a bit red at the praise. "Yeah, well, the Guardians are a pretty great bunch of people," he said sheepishly.

"I'm talking about you too, you big oaf. " Ashe smiled and punched him softly in the arm, though she couldn't seem to bring herself to look him in the face. Instead she continued to stare down at the floor in front of her. "Even though what you did was completely unnecessary, it still meant a lot to me, and I wanted you to know I appreciated it."

Vent's loss for words was covered up by a loud clunk, followed by the hum of the elevator starting to move again. "Looks like Silure got it fixed," Vent said, sounding relieved for an excuse to change the topic. He quickly got to his feet, then turned to offer Ashe a hand up, which she gladly accepted. After she was back on her feet, she thought that Vent held on to her hand for a brief moment longer than necessary before letting go.

_Stop that,_ she scolded herself, _you're just imagining things. He was helping you up, that's all. Calm down and get ahold of yourself, girl._

It was only a few seconds later that the elevator slowly came to a halt. The door beeped quietly as it slid open. "Well, here we are. Your room is down that hall on the right there," Vent said, pointing her in the right direction.

"Oh, yeah, thanks," Ashe stammered, having momentarily forgotten why they were in the elevator together in the first place. _Why am I getting all flustered around Vent lately? And why did I tell him all of that stuff about me?_ _I could have brushed him off pretty easily and he'd have let it drop, so why did I..._

As she stepped out into the hallway Ashe suddenly felt a strange tightening in her chest. She couldn't explain exactly where it was, or why she felt it, but it was there. Then when she turned around to say goodbye to Vent it abruptly worsened, and she realized why - she didn't want him to leave. Talking to Vent, and knowing that he wanted to listen, felt good - it was that warm fuzzy feeling she'd felt before, when he'd visited her in her room after she'd left the infirmary. She wanted to keep talking to him about all the things she kept pent up in herself, and she wanted to hear the same things about him, but she couldn't have said why.

Ashe frantically started trying to come up with a way to keep him from leaving. She knew she was being irrational, but she didn't care - something inside her was screaming at her to not let that elevator door close while he was still inside, screaming so loudly that she couldn't ignore it no matter how hard she tried.

"So, uh, Vent, where you off to now?" she asked, stalling for time while she tried to sort herself out.

"Well, I guess I'll go check up on Aile, she was pretty worried about me again. If I know her she's probably in our room brooding or doing something equally gloomy." The expression on his face indicated that he wasn't looking forward to it.

"Don't you think it's time you let your sister deal with life by herself?" Ashe said just as the door beeped, indicating it was about to slide shut. She put one hand over the sensor to keep it open as she continued. "I know you two are close, but it's like you're joined at the hip or something. She needs to figure out how to deal with things on her own, y'know? Learn not to beat herself up over things so much and trust you to take care of yourself. She won't do that if you keep coddling her all the time. She's a strong person, except where you're involved."

Vent sighed. "You're probably right," he said.

"Of course I am." Then she had an amazing idea. "Say, why don't you come to my room and look over the Legion data with me? It'd be nice to have some company for something that's bound to be incredibly boring."

Vent considered her proposition for a moment, then smiled. "Sure, that sounds like a great idea. It's not like I've got anything better to do. Besides, this way I can make sure you know how to reach your room from now on, too."

"Of course it's a great idea - I came up with it, didn't I?" Ashe smiled back, though while Vent's was full of good-natured humor, hers was one of desperate relief. As Vent stepped off the elevator the tightness in her chest vanished, leaving only the odd warm feeling behind. 'Warm' wasn't really the right word, but it was as close as she could get. She decided to not let it bother her, pushing the matter out of her mind and simply enjoying the feeling - whatever it was.

* * *

Author's Note

The first half of this chapter is probably my favorite part yet, mostly because I really like developing Model L. The second half...ehhh. I'm still really bad at writing this sort of thing, which is why I'm making myself do it. What's here actually didn't turn out so bad, but the first version of that elevator scene was pretty painful to read. Ah, the wonders of editing! If you happen to like reading about Vent and Ashe I'm shoving more of it down your throat in part 15, but I'm not sure whether I like it more or less than this. You'd think I'd get better at it with time...

"Relief" is from the ZXA soundtrack, and the only place I can think of that it plays is after you beat Albert and wake up back at Hunter's Base. It likely shows up elsewhere but I can't recall where. I don't particularly like the song since it's kind of boring, but the name fits this part nicely, and I guess the song does as well, to some extent.

Instead of doing a RtZ update next week I'm going to be posting "Where We Belong", the sappy Ciel fic I mentioned I was writing at the end of part 13. I wrote it largely to get more practice at writing scenes like this chapter, and I think it turned out really well. Hopefully that means that any more sappy chapters I write for RtZ turn out better too. I was going to post it this weekend but I'm running out pre-written material, so I'm spreading things out in the interest of keeping a steady flow going. I haven't had much time to write lately due to schoolwork, but since classes are over this Thursday that shouldn't be a problem much longer. So, keep an eye out for that. I'd love feedback on it as much as I'd love feedback on this. :D

Canonical Notes

Yes, my view of the Hunters is somewhat more creative than Inti's. The game doesn't really give many details about how their organization works, so in the interest of creating a more interesting background for Ashe I made them a bit darker than they're portrayed in the game. I happen to like it this way, but you're free to...not. The "collection of one-room shacks" deal is largely from just wandering around Hunter's Base in ZXA and looking at the backgrounds - that's pretty much what they are. And what's the deal with having a building dedicated solely to throwing unconscious main characters into it? See, this is the kind of stuff I have to deal with. :P

In my mind, while the Guardians may have at one point consisted of only one ship full of do-gooders, they have since expanded to have several other facilities, one of which is Cygnus Base. These are largely unknown or otherwise discreet facilities that serve as bases of operations for Guardian activities in the area. Sometimes they're nothing more than a couple of equipment sheds and a perimeter fence, while others are like Cygnus and have full repair and communication facilities. I figure that if the Guardians are going to try and save the world, they're going to eventually need some backup. You'll be seeing more of this stuff in the future.

I also made the Guardian Base a lot larger than in ZX. It's not that they actually made the base that much bigger (though they did remodel and expand it slightly at one point, which is when the _Sword of Hope _was added - more on that in later parts), it's just that having a giant base full of nothing but empty rooms is a pretty boring gameplay element, so you don't see it all in the game. In reality the base is also not created in two dimensions. I also imagine it would be bad ship design to put the power reactor right next to the ship's lower hull, which is where it is in ZX. So just pretend that elevator in the middle of the ship in ZX goes up and down a few more floors, such that the lower floor in the game is actually the fourth or fifth from the bottom.

I also embellished a little regarding Model L/Leviathan's background. Live with it. :P


	15. Part 15: Whisper of Relics

Part 15: Whisper of Relics

Zero stared blankly up at the ceiling as he lay on an infirmary bed, contemplating his next course of action. It was painfully obvious, both figuratively and literally, that he needed another body if he was going to be successful at any attempt to stop Thomas and his plans for the Maverick Virus. The amount of power and concentration needed to hold his body together was increasing rapidly, and combined with the damage he'd received so far it was likely only a matter of hours before he lost control of his body and reverted back to being a biometal and a pile of Galleon scraps.

He heard the door slide open nearby but didn't bother looking to see who it was - it was likely just that annoying Muguet woman again, futilely trying to figure out some way of fixing his battered body. She fussed far too much for Zero's liking. After hovering around him for a while like he was about to die at any moment he had finally scared her off with some idle threat - he couldn't even remember what he'd said anymore.

It wasn't until the recent arrival came and put her head right in Zero's line of sight that he realized it wasn't Muguet. "Aren't there more important things for you to be doing than checking up on me?" He inquired of Prairie's face.

"Yes, but I've been doing those for the past forty-five minutes. We're getting close to Cygnus Base and I figured this would be the only time we'd have to chat for a little while, since I'll have dozens of things that need doing as soon as we land. And believe me, we definitely need to have a chat." Prairie quickly looked his body over, then returned her gaze to his eyes. "You look like crap," she stated.

"Glad we agree on that," Zero said dryly. "However, I'm at a loss as to what I should do about it. I can't afford to sit around and wait for the Guardians to create a new body for me while Thomas continues on with his mad plan to use the Maverick Virus to reset the world."

"There's no way I'm even letting you fight a Metool in this condition, let alone wage war on an entire nation." Prairie pulled back as Zero sat up in the bed. "But you're right, Cygnus Base doesn't have a reploid production facility. We'd have to send a message elsewhere to make a body for you. Since you'd probably want a top-of-the-line combat design it would probably take a while to make it, too - at least a week, more likely two. Then we'd have to go pick it up afterward. I don't think we can afford to wait that long."

Zero nodded in agreement. "It would take even more time after that for me to get comfortable enough with it that I'd be willing to go up against Thomas and his Mega Men in it. I've almost been killed by three of them already because I haven't quite gotten a feel for this body. I'd really rather not try my luck against all of them at once unless I know exactly what I'm capable of, and that I'll be able to do what I need to in a battle without having to worry about whether my body can handle it." Zero heaved a frustrated sigh. "I just wish I were in my own body again. It would makes things so much simpler."

"Yeah..." Prairie responded absentmindedly, suddenly lost in thought. Zero looked at her oddly for a few moments, wondering what she was thinking about. He was about to inquire for details when she spoke up again. "If we could get you back into your original body, that certainly would solve a lot of problems, wouldn't it..."

"Wishful thinking, Prairie," Zero said ruefully, shaking his head again. "There's no way my body would have survived the fall from Ragnarok. It's definitely gone for good."

"That wasn't what I meant by 'original body', actually..." Prairie suddenly became very interested in looking at anything other than Zero's eyes.

"Prairie...what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Zero said, eyeing her suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"

"It was back when we first found the biometal, in what we later learned was the ruins of the Ragnarok. Sis had been looking for that particular site ever since you...well, she always thought there might be something of you...left." Even as she spoke Prairie was unwilling to meet Zero's glare, which grew more intense after every sentence she spoke. "Anyway, once she heard about the strange material found there - which we later call Model W - she headed out there to study it herself.

"After she'd been there a few days she decided she'd take a look around the rest of the ruins to see what else she could find. It was the wreck of the Ragnarok, after all - Weil may have been mad, but he was also a technological genius. She thought that maybe she could find something else in there besides the biometal that would be useful.

"During one of these trips she started getting a very strange energy reading, one she'd seen before, and had thought to never see it again. She made no record of it - I only know because she told me about it herself later that same day. The energy signature...it was the same as the Dark Elf's."

"Prairie," Zero growled, "what did Ciel find down there?"

Prairie still refused to meet Zero's eyes, instead looking at her hands as she wrung them in front of her chest. "She did a little more digging in what remained of the Ragnarok's databanks and found out that Weil...he somehow managed to retrieve the remains of Omega after you destroyed him and brought them onto the Ragnarok. He was planning to resurrect him, just like he'd resurrected Copy X.

"Fortunately the whole process was stopped when you destroyed Weil, and Ragnarok with him. That was all Sis could get out of the databanks - she didn't say whether it was because they were too damaged, or because there wasn't anything else.

"Either way, she tracked down the source of the Dark Elf readings. They were coming from a section of the ruins that was much farther down than where they had found the Model W Core. She said they were strong enough that there was definitely something alive down there, and it was definitely very powerful. She hypothesized that Weil's regeneration process had gotten far enough along before you stopped it that, over time, Omega's own abilities were able to revive him, albeit at a much slower rate than if he'd had Weil's help."

"Two hundred years instead of twenty minutes. She didn't go in after him, I hope," Zero said angrily. "It doesn't matter what shape he's in, Omega would tear her apart in a heartbeat."

"Of course not, she wasn't stupid," Prairie said, finally willing to meet Zero's gaze. "She said she took 'preventive measures' to keep him sealed until we could figure out what to do about him.

"Two days later, Serpent went berserk and killed everyone on the research team. In the aftermath, I think you'll understand if dealing with what 'might' have been Omega wasn't exactly at the top of my list of priorities."

"So you just let him sit down there and get even more powerful?" Zero said heatedly. "You thought you'd just sweep him under the rug while you flew around the world destroying Model W's?"

"What would you have me do, then?" Prairie demanded - she wasn't going to let Zero lecture her on her priorities. "Remember, we didn't have any biomatches for the biometals. We didn't even have the biometals back at the Guardian Base yet, for that matter. And even if we did, would you have me send Vent or Aile down to fight that...that abomination of a reploid? Without even knowing what it was capable of? It would be like sending them to their deaths! I wasn't about to ask either of them to do that, not when there was still time to try and find another solution."

Zero grunted, reluctantly conceding the point. "I guess that makes sense. Did she at least tell you anything about these 'preventive measures' of hers?"

"Only that she put a biolock on the door that would only open for one person. She didn't tell me who it was, but I doubt it would be you - otherwise it would open for Omega as well.

"Look, Zero. If you can somehow get your body back from Omega you'd be eliminating the threat he may become in the future, while at the same time you'd get the power you need to beat Thomas, Aeolus, and anything else they can throw at you. We can transfer directly to the transerver at the location of the old Model W Core, we'd be gone less than a day. You're not going to find a better deal than that."

Zero thought about Prairie's proposition for a moment, then shook his head. "This is crazy. How do we even know I'll be able to use his body after defeating him? Something tells me he won't give it up willingly. And fighting Omega in my own body was risky enough, now you want me to fight him in this piece of scrap? I don't see how such a thing could ever be possible."

"Well, you do seem to have a knack for doing impossible things, Zero. The fact that you're sitting here in front of me right now is testament to that."

Zero looked at her narrowly out of the corner of his eye as he continued to consider her proposition. Eventually he sighed. "I may not like it, but you're right. Omega is something I need to deal with, regardless of Thomas' plans. Stopping him from repeating the Maverick Wars would be pointless if Omega broke loose afterward."

"See? You should learn to stop arguing with me all the time," Prairie said, satisfied with herself.

"However, that still doesn't change the fact that I'm in no shape to go fighting anything, and we don't have time to wait for a new body constructed that would be up to spec for an encounter with Omega."

Prairie didn't have an answer to that. They both stood in silence for a few moments as they wrestled with their dilemma. It was finally Prairie who came up with a solution.

"Well, I think there's only one thing we can do, then." She sounded very resigned.

Zero raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Oh? For all of this being your idea, you don't sound very enthusiastic about it."

She sighed, then smiled her sweetest, most innocent smile at him. "Yes, well, I don't think you're going to like it."

She was right.

* * *

A short while later, Muguet entered the infirmary to check up on her latest patient. As the door slid open she gasped in surprise. Instead of Zero lying in the room where she'd left him, there was a large pile of broken Galleon parts piled on the bed and strewn across the floor.

"Why do I always have to clean up the mess," the poor woman sighed as she went looking for a dustpan.

* * *

Vent yawned idly as he flipped through another page of Legion archive documents on his handheld access terminal. He and Ashe had been looking through the information from the computer lab for nearly forty minutes and still hadn't found anything relevant to their current situation. Eventually Vent had decided to take a different approach and pulled up all the archival files pertaining to the Maverick Wars and begun leafing through those, hoping for some clues.

"Ugh, this is so boring!" Vent heard a dull thud as Ashe's head thumped onto her desk in defeat. "There's so much garbage in here, it'll take forever to find anything we can use!"

"Well you don't have to search every single file, you know," Vent said dryly. "Most of the information on those servers is just regular day-to-day record-keeping that we can ignore. Try thinking of useful things to search for to narrow it down a little."

"I know _that_, I'm not an idiot. But if you were a traitorous government overlord bent on world destruction, do you think you'd put your master plans somewhere that any search query would pick it up? It's probably hidden under some weird filename or something. If we don't look at all of them we might never know what's actually in them!"

"Good point," Vent reluctantly admitted. "Well, how about you start with this?" He tossed over his console.

"Huh?" Ashe snatched the device out of the air and looked at what was on the screen. "Archive files? Vent, the creation date on these is almost two hundred years ago. There's no way they could tell us anything about Thomas' plans." "Those four files contain all the information the modern world knows about the Maverick Wars, and thus the Maverick Virus that caused them." He shrugged. "I figured if we can't find anything about this new Virus we could at least educate ourselves about the old one. Maybe it'll give us a better idea of what to search for."

"Hmm. Better than nothing, I guess." Ashe's features furrowed in thought. "So these are the same files Thomas learned from..." She suddenly gasped as inspiration struck. She quickly turned back to her console and began furiously tapping away at the keys.

"What is it?" Vent asked anxiously.

"Thomas learned about the Maverick Virus from these files, right? That means he accessed them at some point. If I can find the access logs for these archive files...here they are. Ah-ha, look at this!" She shouted and pointed triumphantly at the screen, forcing Vent to leave the comfort of his chair to go take a look. He stared blankly for a few minutes at the access logs Ashe had brought up on the screen.

"I don't get it. What am I supposed to be seeing here?"

"If Thomas used these archive files to learn about the Maverick Virus, that means it would be recorded in these access logs, right? So if we can figure out which one of these entries is him then we know exactly when he started planning this whole thing."

"That's great, but there's several thousand entries in here. How are we supposed to know which ones are his?"

Ashe let a smug look creep onto her face. "Well, just look at the logs for all four files at once. See anything funny?"

Vent glanced across the logs for a few moments, not sure what he was supposed to be picking up on. He shook his head in defeat. "I don't see anything."

Ashe sighed in frustration, then pointed at the top of the screen. "Look at the start of the access logs. After their date of creation, each one was individually accessed no more than a dozen times over the two hundred years they were in there, and no more than one file was ever looked at - probably someone accessing the wrong file or something. But look here," she pointed at a spot about halfway down the monitor, "six years ago, suddenly all four files are accessed within fifteen minutes of each other. After that they're accessed almost every day, sometimes more than once."

"So now we know Thomas accessed these files six years ago, that's a good start. Bring up a list of all the files in the database on that date...November twelfth."

Ashe tapped a few keys and a long list of names scrolled up the screen, with a very large total at the bottom. "Okay, that's still way too much to look through," she said. The two began wracking their brains for ways to narrow down the search.

"If Thomas was looking through those files, he probably made some notes somewhere while he was doing it," Vent reasoned aloud. "Try checking for files created within a few hours after the archive files were accessed."

Ashe followed his suggestion, resulting in another list of file names scrolling down the screen. "One thousand, eight hundred and twelve. Well, that's a shorter list, I suppose, but still way more than I want to look through."

"Same here," Vent replied, tapping his chin thoughtfully. There had to be a way to narrow the search down even more.

"Try checking for new files made in restricted areas of the database," Model X suggested from Vent's pocket. "I doubt Thomas would make a record of his plans in a public place where anyone could accidentally come across them."

"Good idea," Ashe agreed,tapping a few more keys. "That takes us down to...sixteen."

"That's manageable. Put eight of them on the handheld for me to look through while you take the other eight."

Their hopes and spirits restored, Ashe and Vent began eagerly reading through the sixteen files in question. Fifteen minutes later, however, neither of them had found anything useful.

"Just a bunch of status reports and security checks over here," Vent said dejectedly. He took Ashe's sigh of frustration to mean that she hadn't found anything either. She began tapping her fingers on the desk, trying to think of what else they could look for.

"He probably erased his file creation entries from the file creation log," Ashe thought out loud, "in which case I don't think there's any way for us to figure out what they were. Damn, we're so close!"

Vent thought about the problem for a moment before he came up with another idea. "Bring up the listing of all the files in the database from an hour before the archive file accesses, then remove any names that list has in common with the list from afterward."

"All right..." Ashe did as he asked, though she didn't understand why. "But that will just give us a list of all the new files created during that time, which we already have..." She gasped as she followed Vent's reasoning. "So if we also take out all the files listed in the file creation logs..."

"We'll be left with a list of files that just suddenly and unexplainably appeared in the database shortly after the archive files were opened," Vent finished for her with a smile.

A decent number of keystrokes later, two filenames appeared on the screen. "There. These two files mysteriously appeared in the database in between one hour before the archive files were accessed and two hours afterward."

"Well, let's open one up and see what's inside," Vent said, a tinge of hope creeping into his voice.

Ashe opened the first file on the list and they both watched in amazement as a series of diagrams, charts, and tables filled the screen. Ashe checked the document size and gasped. "There's over one hundred pages of this stuff," she said, astonished. "It looks like research on the Maverick Virus."

"I've seen these diagrams somewhere before..." Vent said thoughtfully. He picked up the handheld console and brought up one of the archive files he'd been looking through earlier, then held it up beside the monitor on the desk. "I thought so. These are the same diagrams as in the archive files. But why would Thomas make a duplicate of the archive file, and then continue to access the old one so frequently? It doesn't make any sense."

"Because they aren't the same file. Look," Ashe pointed at one of the tables on the screen that was labeled the same as one of the ones on the handheld. "See, these numbers here are different. The diagram on this page looks a little different too; these circles here are in different places. I don't know what any of this stuff means, but I think this is the design of the altered Maverick Virus that Thomas made. He's even got some of his changes outlined in the diagram notes, see? I bet if we looked through this whole thing we could find all the stuff he did to make his new Virus."

"This is great," Vent said, astonished at the discovery they'd just made. "Now that we have all this information about how the Virus works, maybe Zero and Prairie can find a way to fight it. I don't understand any of this stuff either, but I bet they would. What's in the other file?"

Ashe brought up the second on the list and scanned through. She didn't see anything about the Maverick Virus, or even anything related to it. She began to read section headings aloud as she browsed through. "Model W progress report, DAN-001 and DAN-002 activity monitor reports, DAN-000 system backup progress...hey, that's what it said on Prometheus and Pandora's capsules in the lab I investigated! And Albert called himself DAN-000 when I saw him on the Ouroboros...did Thomas already know about all this stuff?"

"No, I don't think this was his work," Model X pointed out. "The writing style is totally different between this file and the last one. I think Albert wrote this. Notice that the report only contains information about the current day. I bet if we looked carefully we could find daily reports like this for everything Albert was doing behind the backs of the other two Sages."

"Yeah. Wow, if Prairie had had this information earlier we could have stopped Albert a long time ago...hmm, what's this?" Ashe stopped scrolling as a topic heading caught her eye. "Project Grey? I don't remember Albert ever mentioning anything like that before..."

"Probably something about what he was going to do after he succeeded in taking over the world, or whatever it was he was after - I was never really clear on that point, myself," Vent replied. "Regardless, now that he's gone it doesn't really matter anymore. Mark it for later and we'll come back to it when we have the time - right now we need to concentrate on finding out more about Thomas. Something tells me he had more than just one file hidden away on the Legion servers...try checking for any files that have access times that coincide with the one for the file we've already got. If there's more than one file, chances are he was using them at the same time."

"Hmm...I've got five decent matches. Four of them are the archive files we already know about, so let's take a look at this fifth one..." Vent moved forward and leaned over Ashe's shoulder as they both stared at the screen as a wall of text scrolled by. "Looks like just a bunch of reports. Why did he need to hide this stuff?" Ashe wondered aloud.

"Look at the headings: communications network alterations, Mega Man activity reports, mechaniloid production rates at several different facilities, shipping manifests for large numbers of weapons...none of this stuff is something a member of the Sage Trinity should be dealing in. It's basically a record of the progress he's made on this plan in the past six years. This could prove to be very useful in figuring out what Thomas' larger designs are."

As Vent continued to read over the information on the monitor he noticed that Ashe had stopped scrolling. He looked over at her and his gaze instantly locked onto her eyes as she stared back at him. It was just then that Vent realized exactly how close he'd gotten in his excitement over their discovery - her face was only a scant few inches from his. He could see little details on her face that he never had before. Not completely aware of what he was doing, his eyes began to follow the lines of her wide cheekbones, the shape of her nose, the curves of her slightly parted lips...he could almost lose himself in her eyes, those beautiful emerald eyes...

Suddenly, for some reason that Vent couldn't describe to save his life, he began to slowly lower his head. Ashe continued staring up at him at their faces came closer and closer together, caught in the same kind of strange trance that Vent himself was, unable to explain the cause, or escape from it. It felt like something was drawing him downward, a need to be closer, a need to...

Vent was abruptly ripped out of his weird funk by the sound of the comm panel activating. Suddenly aware of what exactly he was doing, Vent immediately jerked backward, breaking eye contact with Ashe as Prairie's voice came through the comm speaker. "Attention all crew. We will be landing at Cygnus Base in three minutes. Please begin landing preparation procedures and be ready for rapid descent. I am also requesting the presence of all third rank officers on the landing pad in fifteen minutes for a status briefing and update. Thank you."

An awkward silence filled the air between the two as Prairie finished her announcement and the light on the comm panel winked out, the strange compulsion that had grabbed hold of them both fading from memory. Vent was shocked at himself, at what he'd been about to do - it was so completely unlike him to act on impulse like that. He felt horrible for putting Ashe in such an awkward situation, even more so because he couldn't even explain the reason for it to himself, let alone justify it to someone else. His head was such a whirl of thoughts that he couldn't make sense of anything right then.

His confusion was mirrored in Ashe. Her voice was uncertain as she opened her mouth to speak, like she had something she wanted to say, but didn't know how to say it. "Vent, I..." she began, but then stopped herself. Vent glanced over at her and saw the uncertainty in her voice mirrored in her eyes, but it quickly vanished, replaced by the smile that was slowly spreading across her features. "I think we make a great team," she finished.

Vent smiled back at her. "So do I," he replied. He knew that she had intended to say something else, but was afraid to ask what it was. There was a tension in the air between them that he hadn't felt before, and he could see it reflected in her eyes as she struggled to come to terms with something inside herself.

_She's not the only one,_ a tiny voice inside him said. He ignored it.

"Well, I guess we can tell Prairie about our discoveries after we land," Vent said awkwardly, trying to change the subject. He straightened up, moving his face away from Ashe's - though not without a significant amount of effort, and accompanied by a tinge of regret, which he immediately repressed.

"Yeah, I guess," Ashe said, though her attention still seemed to be directed at something other than him.

_She's trying to decide if she should be glad you stopped, _the tiny voice in his head quipped.

Vent violently pushed that thought from his mind. Ashe was his friend - he didn't want to do anything that would put her in an awkward position, despite what his own feelings might be. _Not that I'm sure about what those are, either._ The last thing he wanted to do was make her feel uncomfortable and jeopardize the friendship they'd forged, which is why he was so angry at himself for acting the way he had.

"Well, I'd better get back to my own quarters before we land," he said weakly as he turned for the door. He needed to get out of there before he did something else he might regret later. "Even when the ship is in good shape it can get a little rough during landings - who knows what it'll be like with damaged engines. I'll definitely need to buckle in somewhere safe for this one." He chuckled nervously.

"Can't you just stay here?" Ashe asked. A confused look immediately spread across her face, as though she were wondering why she'd just said that.

_You want to stay, she wants you to stay, so why are you leaving?_ the voice asked. Vent mentally slapped it before responding.

"No, this room's only built for one person, so there's only one set of safety buckles." He indicated a set of straps attached to the wall near where Ashe was sitting. "I'll go strap myself into the ones in my room. Prairie didn't say it in the announcement but I bet she wants you at that meeting too, so I'll see you then." He ducked out the door with a quick smile and a wave to hide his nervousness.

As soon as the door slid shut behind him Vent sagged against the wall and forced himself to take a few deep breaths to try and calm down. _What's gotten into me? _he wondered, going over the events of the past few moments again in his mind. _She was looking at me so intently, I couldn't help but look back at her, then all of a sudden I...I don't know. I just felt this powerful urge to...damn, what's wrong with me?_

Model X, who had remained inconspicuously silent inside of Vent's pocket, couldn't resist himself any longer. "I can think of at least one way you could have secured yourself for landing, other than the landing straps," the biometal casually pointed out.

"Shut up," Vent said irritably, silently berating himself for having already thought the same thing.

* * *

As the door slid closed behind Vent, Ashe finally let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Dammit Ashe, what the hell are you doing?" She scolded herself under her breath. "This isn't like you at all."

"Are you okay, Ashe?" Model A asked from where he was sitting on the table nearby. "You've been acting funny lately."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ashe replied. "I've just got a lot on my mind right now. All this Maverick Virus stuff is getting pretty crazy and messing with my head," she lied.

_Even Model A can tell that I'm acting weird,_ she thought to herself as she strapped in for the landing. _I can't help it though. When he's around I just feel so...strange. But..._she smiled inwardly to herself as she remembered the intensity in Vent's eyes as they'd locked gazes.

_I think it's a good thing._

_

* * *

_

**Author's Note:**

So, I finally get around to revealing where Zero's next body is going to come from, which a lot of people already guessed. That's fine, I wasn't really trying to hide it. But you have to remember, nobody else besides Prairie knew Omega was still alive (in my world, Vent didn't go down and find Model O at all) so they wouldn't have figured it out. You'll find out what Prairie's crazy scheme is next chapter (if you haven't already figured it out) as well as see how the others react when they learn about Omega.

I felt kind of sorry for Muguet, so I gave her a few lines all to herself. Poor woman has to clean up all sorts of strange things in that infirmary.

This part took a lot of planning, since I had to make some believable way for Ashe and Vent to find the information they needed without making it seem incredibly cliched. Unfortunately I'm not very good at writing detective-y stories, nor do I want to be. I also had to figure out exactly what I wanted them to find, for use in later parts. Luckily I already know where I'm going with this so it only took me one rewrite to get everything how I wanted it. :S

As for the Ashe/Vent stuff...yeah, this is kind of bad. Even trying to edit it made me sort of wince. I like the way I ended it though, so that turned out okay, but some of the stuff in between is just corny as hell. I can't seem to make it work any better though, so just wince through it and move on. For higher-quality fluffiness, go read "Where We Belong", which I posted on Good Friday. I used it for practice to get better at stuff like this, and I think it turned out really well. You can get to it through my profile page. Reviews appreciated, as it will only serve to make Return to Zero better! :D

Sorry about the shortness of this part. The scene with Prairie and Zero was initially longer, but I took part of it out and put it into the next chapter, for narrative purposes. Considering the length of the next part, though, I don't feel so bad. It's, um...massive. :D

"Whisper of Relics" is the music inside the third and fourth Mysterious Lab areas in ZXA. Considering this part is all about things coming back from the past (Omega, Maverick Virus), I thought it was a fitting title. The music isn't half bad either, though it doesn't really fit this chapter, in my opinion.

Incidentally, I recently noticed that one of the tracks on the RMZ3 Remastered album is called "Return to Zero". And here I thought the title of my story was original! Oh well, I still think it's pretty cool.

**EDIT:** One of my wonderfully observant readers pointed out that "Whisper of Relics" is in fact the music from the third and fourth Mysterious Lab areas, not the quarry. Oops! That's what I get for trying to do it from memory. Thanks for Hideki Hirameshi for catching it, it's now corrected in the text above.


	16. Part 16: Slam Down

Part 16: Slam Down

Prairie waited patiently in the center of the clearing just outside of Cygnus base where she'd told Ashe, Vent, and Aile to meet her during the brief landing pad meeting. Lines of trees lined a thirty-foot-wide area of relative flat ground, where for some reason not even grass would grow. It was just another scar that still remained on the face of the earth, a silent reminder of the tragedies that had befallen the planet in ages past. It was the most suitable place Prairie could find for what she had planned.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Zero's disembodied biometal voice said from within her pocket, where he rested awkwardly. He still wasn't quite used to not having a physical body again. "Most people don't learn to swim by jumping off the deep end first."

"We're in a hurry, aren't we?" Prairie argued. "This is the fastest and most thorough method I can come up with."

Zero sighed in defeat. He knew it was useless to argue with Prairie when she had her mind set on something like this. Besides, she did have a point. And this meeting would also serve as an opportunity for the two of them to reveal their plan to the others.

_Even though I still don't like it,_ Zero grumbled to himself. _Ever since I came back things have been spiraling out of control. First the Maverick Virus makes a return, then Harpuia has a change of heart. Now I find out that Omega is alive and that I have to fight him before he breaks loose. When this is all over I'm definitely going to have to give X a piece of my mind for dropping me into the middle of everything without any hint about what was going on around here._

"Here they come," Prairie told him, bringing Zero's attention back to the present. He couldn't see what was going on from within Prairie's pocket, but he could hear the footsteps of the three approaching figures.

"Hey Prairie, what's up? Why'd you want to meet us all the way out here?" It was Aile speaking.

"Zero and I need your help with something," Prairie said.

"Zero? I don't see him anywhere," Ashe's voice said. "I didn't peg him as the kind of guy to be late for anything."

"He'll...be along shortly."

""Why'd you need us to come all the way out here?" Came Vent's voice. "You couldn't have just told us whatever it was when we saw you at the landing pad?"

"Look, I know this seems like a strange way of going about things, but trust me, it's better this way," Prairie said. "If you'll give me a second to explain everything will make more sense."

"I'm assuming this has something to do with our next course of action," Model X stated.

Prairie nodded. "Yes, and it's very important that you all understand what I'm about to tell you. I know it's going to be hard to believe, but please listen to what I have to say.

"Vent, do you remember back when we found the first Model W Core that Serpent was trying to recover?" Vent nodded. "Well, right after you found the Core, do you remember how I told you to return to Guardian Base to deal with his attack force, rather than go deeper into the ruins?"

"Yeah, you told me we didn't have time to go exploring, and that you'd check it out later." He scratched his head. "Come to think of it, we never did go back there. Things started getting a little crazy and I guess I completely forgot about it. But what does that have to do with what's happening now?"

"Because that's our next destination. While it was true that you were needed elsewhere at the time, I also didn't want you to go farther into the ruins because I already knew what was inside. When the previous Commander of the Guardians was investigating those ruins, she found something that should have been dead and buried a long, long time ago...something very dangerous."

"More dangerous than Albert and the Ouroboros?" Ashe said skeptically.

"Much worse," Prairie confirmed. "Its...his...name, is Omega, and he poses just as great a threat to the world as Thomas and the Maverick Virus."

"I find that a little hard to swallow," Ashe argued. "If he's so dangerous, why is he still sitting at the bottom of some centuries-old ruins? And if you knew about him all this time, why haven't you done anything about it?"

"He's still in the ruins because Sis sealed him there, though for how long, I don't know. We haven't done anything about it because we haven't had anyone capable of defeating him."

"Oh, I get it. Now that Zero's back you think he'll be able to handle it?" Ashe scoffed. "Aren't you putting just a little too much faith in him? The guy's not invincible, you know. His current situation is proof of that."

"You need to stop speaking critically of things which you know nothing about!" Model L said with barely checked anger in her voice. It was obvious that two hundred years of being trapped in a chunk of metal hadn't cooled her hatred towards Omega at all.

"Calm down, both of you!" Aile exclaimed. "You're being awfully rude."

"Sorry," Ashe mumbled. Model L said nothing.

Zero had to admit the Hunter girl's concerns were legitimate ones, though he agreed with Aile that she was being rather tactless about it. _She must be worked up over something else and she's taking it out on Prairie,_ he guessed.

From his place in her pocket, Zero could see Prairie smile indulgently at the Hunter girl as she responded. "You're right, Zero's not invincible. But I know he can beat Omega, because he's done it before."

"Obviously didn't do a very good job of it," quipped Ashe.

"Shut up, girl! You have no idea what you're talking about!" Model L yelled indignantly. "When are you going to get it through your head that this is no laughing matter?" Aile tried to quiet her biometal, but Model L continued her tirade right over top of the poor girl's protests. "Every word Prairie has spoken is the truth. You have no idea how powerful Omega is. You would be wise to listen to what she has to say!"

"That's enough out of both of you!" Vent hollered, startling everyone into silence, himself included. He continued in a quieter tone. "We're all on the same side, there's no need for us to be squabbling amongst ourselves. Obviously Prairie knows this is a big deal or we wouldn't be out here having a secret meeting about it. So why don't we all stop arguing and let her get to the point?" A long silence followed, during which Zero could only imagine the heated glares being shot around the clearing. _Good job, Vent._

"Thank you Vent," Prairie said politely. "Now then, as I was saying, I'm confident that Zero can beat Omega. Not only that, but for...certain reasons...Zero and I believe that he may be able to use Omega's body after he's been defeated. Having such a powerful body would make dealing with Thomas and his Mega Men significantly easier, while it would also remove the threat Omega poses to the world."

Everyone in the clearing began voicing confused questions and protests, except for Model X and Model L. Model X remained silent, while Model L chuckled so quietly that Zero was probably the only one who heard her over the din of protests. "Now that's irony," was all the blue biometal said.

"Look, it would take too long to explain it all to you," Prairie said, waving her arms to quiet down the three humans. "I'm not clear on the details myself, but we think it's possible. However, that still leaves us with the problem that Zero can't possibly fight Omega using the body he has now."

"So he needs a new body to fight Omega with," Vent concluded. "Is that why you brought us out here? You want one of us to do it?"

"Well, no, not exactly," Prairie replied. "We've already found Zero a new body, but he needs some...practice, to get used to fighting in it before he goes up against Omega. That's why I asked all of you to come out here."

"You want us to fight against Zero?" Aile asked incredulously.

"Sounds great!" Ashe exclaimed, sounding far more excited at the prospect than Zero would have liked. "I'll take him on! Maybe he'll be able to fight well enough now that I'll start to believe all the stuff you're saying about him. So, where are they, Zero and this new body?"

Prairie sighed, then put her hand into the front pocket of her jacket, grasping Zero's biometal form tightly in her hand. "I'm ready, Zero," she said quietly.

Vent, Aile, and Ashe all gasped as Prairie's body was briefly enveloped in a flash of white light, which subsided just as quickly as it appeared. While the figure who now stood before them was undoubtedly Prairie, her appearance had changed significantly.

Her captain's hat was gone, replaced by a familiar red-finned helmet, its blue-green gem shining brightly as the power of Model Z flowed through it. Her long blonde hair was still present, now hanging down her back in a ponytail tied just below her neck, though her bangs had vanished. Her long coat remained, though it had changed from its usual shade of light pink to a crimson red, and the sleeves were taken off at the shoulder, leaving her limbs free and unhindered. Beneath it rested a matching piece of chest armor that stretched down to her stomach, protecting her entire middle while still allowing for full maneuverability. Her forearms and shins were now covered with thick armor plating, and her white gloves were replaced with dark fingerless ones, similar to what Vent wore when he was merged with Model Z.

"We're right here," Prairie said.

"Before any of you start getting angry with me, I'd like to point out that this was completely her idea," Zero stated. "I argued with her for twenty minutes, but she wouldn't budge."

"Prairie, this is crazy!" Vent exclaimed in disbelief. "You can't honestly expect us to start fighting you! And after you just finished telling us how dangerous Omega is, you expect us to let you go fight him yourself?!"

"No, I won't be fighting Omega, nor will I be fighting any of you," Prairie replied calmly. "Zero will be the one doing all the fighting, using my body. He will be the one in control, not me."

"So you're just going to sit by and watch while Zero puts your life on the line?" Ashe argued. "If he screws up you're the one who's going to pay for it! He could get you killed! Are you really willing to put your life into his hands like that?"

"What I choose to do with my life is my own business," Prairie said stiffly, "and I can think of no place safer for it to be than in Zero's hands. I believe in him. Nothing will happen to me, because Zero will be doing his best to make sure of it.

"Now, let's do what I called you all out here to do. Ashe, you wanted to go first, right?"

"Not anymore!" The Hunter girl exclaimed. "Look, Prairie, why can't one of us go down there and beat Omega? Or why doesn't Zero do a Double Megamerge with Vent and go fight him that way? There has to be a better way of doing this than putting your life in danger! You're not made for this kind of thing!"

Vent and Aile exchanged confused glances. "Made?" They mouthed at each other.

"I am, actually," Prairie responded curtly. "My construction parameters are well above the standards set by most modern reploids. Just because I refuse to engage in combat doesn't mean I'm not capable of it." She grinned smugly. "In fact, if you didn't have your biometal I bet I could wipe the floor with you. Now Megamerge and fight me!"

"No!" Ashe threw up her arms in frustration. "This is stupid, I refuse! Prairie, you're too important to risk getting hurt doing something this dangerous. I'm supposed to be the reckless one around here, not you! I can't let you do this!"

"I'll make you all a deal," Zero interrupted, his disembodied voice calm and quiet. "I'm the only person in the world who stands a chance at defeating Omega. However, if any of you can defeat me while I'm in control of Prairie's body, I'll let you fight him in my stead. If you can best me, you can best Omega." He paused a moment to let his offer sink in. "Well?"

"Go on, girl," Model L taunted Ashe. "You wanted proof of Zero's abilities. Here's your chance to see it firsthand."

"Grrrrr...fine!" Ashe grumbled. "If beating you up is what it's going to take to keep you safe, then that's what I'll do! Let's go, Model A! Megamerge!" The girl reached into her pocket and grabbed onto her biometal, then Megamerged in a flash of light. Seeing no other option, Vent and Aile soon followed suit.

Prairie smiled to herself - if anyone could make Ashe angry enough to fight, of course it would be Model L. Then she took a deep breath and prepared to give control over to Zero. She still wasn't very comfortable with the process, having only done it once before, when they had first attempted it in the infirmary. Maybe her agitation was because she still didn't really understand how it all worked. She thought back to what Zero had told her earlier, and how their first test run had gone...

* * *

"I feel so much heavier..." Prairie said after the light of the Megamerge had subsided as she waved her arms up and down - it felt like she had lead weights attached to her limbs. "Is it supposed to be like this?"

"It's what I expected, if that's what you mean," Zero informed her. "In a normal Megamerge the host body's power levels increase exponentially with respect to the increase in body mass caused by the manifestation of the M.E.G.A. system, so the end result is that they actually feel lighter than before.

"However, you and I aren't actually Megamerged. Since you're not a compatible biomatch for Model Z I can't form a biolink with you, so there's no power transfer. You're not actually any stronger now than you were before; I'm simply using your body to manifest myself without forming a direct link to your systems. The idea is that if I can interrupt the signals going from your central processor to your motor control systems, I should then be able to assume control of your body using the M.E.G.A. system's interface, much like I did with those Galleon parts. Your body will think all of its instructions are still coming from your brain, when they'll actually be coming from me."

"So...what exactly do I have to do?" Prairie asked, confused.

"You have to stop using all of your motor control systems so that they'll accept input from me rather than you. The signals that come from your brain take priority over those from the M.E.G.A. system, so if you try and move your body will listen to you regardless of what I'm trying to do.

"Basically, just relax all your muscles and I'll take care of the rest," Zero assured her.

"All right." Prairie took a deep breath and relaxed her entire body, allowing her arms to fall limply to her sides. She stood completely still for a minute or so, an awkward silence filling the room. After nothing happened, she was about to ask Zero if there was something wrong when he spoke.

"Prairie, you have to relax your legs too," he pointed out.

"But then I'll fall down!" She protested.

"No you won't, I'll catch you," Zero promised. "Trust me."

Prairie paused for a moment, then nodded nervously. Once again she relaxed her face, then her arms, then her chest, working her way systematically down her body. Then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and relaxed her legs. When she began to fall towards the ground she instinctively wanted to catch herself, but then remembered what Zero had said - she needed to trust him completely if this was going to work. So instead of throwing her hands up in front of her face to protect herself, she allowed herself to fall limply to the ground, keeping her eyes firmly shut.

She had fallen barely more than an inch before she felt her legs tense up and catch her balance of their own free will. Then she felt her arms begin to move through the air completely of their own accord, flexing and stretching in the air in front of her closed eyes. It was one of the strangest things she'd ever experienced.

"Looks like it takes a few seconds before the inputs switch over properly," Zero said, a disembodied voice that seemed to come from all around her. It almost felt like he was speaking from inside her mind. "We'll have to keep that in mind. It may pose a problem if we ever have to do that during a battle."

Prairie opened her eyes, which surprised her. "I still have control of my face? And I can still talk?" "Your speech processors and facial expression controls are still receiving input from you rather than the M.E.G.A. system. They aren't required for combat so I didn't take control of them. I thought it would be less awkward this way."

"How thoughtful of you," Prairie said dryly.

"As long as you keep doing whatever you're doing now I should be able to stay in control of your body, it's responding perfectly.'" Prairie could feel her body continue to move around of its own volition as Zero tested it out, then it paused for a moment. "Are you absolutely sure you're okay with this?" Zero asked for what must have been the hundredth time.

"Yes, Zero, I'm sure," Prairie replied, smiling to herself. "I've spent my entire life watching other people risk their lives to protect me. Now, I can finally do the same for them, and...it feels wonderful."

"All right. But remember, your body will still respond to anything you try to do. It's very important that when we enter combat you don't interfere with what I'm doing. I know it's going to be hard to stay completely motionless while you watch someone try to kill you, but that's what you have to do. I'll take care of you, you just have to trust me."

"It's okay, Zero. I know you won't let anyone hurt me. I believe in you."

* * *

Zero could feel the precise moment when he was able to take over Prairie's movement and quickly assumed control before she plummeted to the ground. Since he knew what to do this time there was barely any movement to indicate the shift had taken place. It was hard to explain exactly how he knew or did these things, he just did. It was likely due to some aspect of the M.E.G.A. system embedded within Model Z, which he didn't really know anything about. It was like driving a car - you didn't need to understand all of the technology involved in order to drive it. Being a cyber elf seemed to help as well. As a being made entirely of data, he was discovering that he could manipulate it very easily, even if he didn't know exactly what he was doing. Either way, he was now in control of Prairie's body - it was no longer Prairie who stood before Ashe as she readied for combat, but Zero.

"I've got you," he said to Prairie. She smiled in response, but kept her eyes firmly shut - he could feel them through her. It was an odd sensation, one that would take some getting used to. _Although I'd much rather that I didn't have to get used to it at all,_ he thought grimly. "All right. Now that we're all ready, here's the rules.

"Combat will continue until three contacts, whether by a projectile or melee weapon, or until either combatant calls for a yield. Make sure all of your weapons are set to fire minimum-yield shots, and activate the safety devices on any beam weapons so that they deactivate before contacting solid objects. We're out here to practice, not hurt each other.

"The limit of the fighting area is just beyond the tree line around this clearing. You can go a short distance into the forest if you wish, but try to stay away from the direction of the base." Zero pointed over his shoulder to indicate the direction he meant. "Both Prairie and I would prefer to keep this little secret from the rest of the crew for as long as possible, and we don't want to cause any unnecessary damage."

"Wouldn't that be hard if all of our weapons are set to minimum power?" Aile asked.

"Yes, but if I threw you into a wall it would still make some nasty cracks that I'd rather not be responsible for fixing up." Zero could feel Prairie smirking, though he kept his own voice level as he continued. "I'm - we're - completely serious about this. I need to get accustomed to maneuvering and fighting in Prairie's body. If I can't defeat the three of you, there's no way I'll be able to defeat Omega, so none of you will be doing me any favors by holding back. Give it everything you've got, and I'll do the same."

"All right then, let's get this show on the road!" Ashe shouted. "You ready?!"

Zero nodded and turned to Vent. "Say when."

Vent was startled for a moment, then nodded. He looked back and forth between the two combatants a few times before yelling, "Begin!" He and Aile then quickly vacated the area as the battle began.

Ashe opened with a Reflect Laser from one of her pistols and a barrage of plasma fire from the other, while she herself dashed to Zero's right. Zero stood his ground, deflecting the charged attack with one slash of his saber - while the laser's reflective properties made it very useful for attacking from unexpected angles, those same properties could be used to easily defend against it. He then easily cut apart the barrage of plasma bullets as though they'd come from a Galleon soldier, then braced himself for the Homing Shot that he expected was coming.

Instead he was caught off guard as Ashe rushed at him with both guns ready. Unsure of what she was planning, Zero feinted a slash at her midsection in an attempt to disrupt her strategy. The girl took the bait, leaping backward to avoid the attack that never came while simultaneously firing both weapons straight at him, unleashing a Homing Shot from one and a Reflect Laser from the other.

Had Zero allowed Ashe to close on him and fire he likely would have been hit by at least one of the two attacks. However, there was now enough distance between the two fighters that the faster-traveling Homing Shot reached its target a second before the Reflect Laser rather than simultaneously as Ashe had planned. This meant Zero had just enough time to absorb the electricity-based Homing Shot through his beam saber, dissipate the energy harmlessly into the air, then immediately swing his sword like a baseball bat to send the Reflect Laser back at Ashe, aiming at her right shoulder. When the Hunter instinctively dodged to her left, she was surprised to find Zero waiting for her.

"Gah!" Ashe exclaimed as her dash thrust ended and she saw Zero's saber pointed at her chest. She nimbly spun aside as the thrust cut through the air a hair's breadth away. Zero swung widely to the side, hoping to catch Ashe with a backhanded attack before she could recover. Unfortunately he underestimated Ashe's agility and swung too widely, allowing Ashe to slip inside the reach of the sword. She grabbed Zero's forearm with both hands and used the momentum of his attack to lift him off the ground, spin him in a circle, then toss him through the air.

Zero fired the dash system in his boots to stop his haphazard spinning, righting himself just in time to defend against another Homing Shot as it sped towards him. He landed heavily on both feet and immediately dashed to his left to avoid another barrage of plasma fire, then dashed forward to close the distance between Ashe and himself. Charging power in both plasma guns, Ashe rushed forward to meet him.

As the two charging fighters reached each other Zero swiped sideways at Ashe's midsection. The Hunter dodged by nimbly jumping into the air, planning to rain fire down on Zero from above. At the same instant her feet left the ground, Zero executed a skill that his previous body didn't have the power to pull off. He instantly transformed his forward momentum into an upward leap and altered his horizontal saber swing into a vertical rising slash, similar to an uppercut. He could feel the legs of Prairie's body protest the sudden intense forces as he pushed off the ground, but they bore the strain of the maneuver silently and cleanly as he flew into the air after Ashe in one smooth motion.

As she lowered her two guns to fire a barrage down at Zero, Ashe squeaked in surprise as she saw his face rushing up at her. In the blink of an eye she felt Zero's glowing green blade as it cut across her left leg from the inside out - if it weren't for the weapon's safeties preventing it from actually cutting anything, Ashe's leg would have just been removed. Still silently stunned by the speed of Zero's maneuver, she failed to react as Zero delivered a fierce spinning kick to her side that sent her flying across the clearing, landing a short distance away with a resounding thud.

Looking to score a quick third hit, Zero lightly touched down and immediately thrust his sword hilt-deep into the hard-packed dirt at his feet. Drawing on the powers of Model Z, Zero channeled energy through his blade and into the ground, then launched it Ashe's direction. Pillars of green energy burst from the surface as the attack rushed through the earth towards the prone Hunter girl.

Seeing the approaching energy wave, Ashe quickly gathered her wits and rolled away from where she lay, standing in a single fluid motion at the same time. She was about to fire a series of plasma shots at the motionless figure of Zero when an explosion of energy erupted from the place where she'd lain moments before. Although she had rolled far enough away that the blast didn't reach her, the concussive force released as it burst from the ground knocked her flying through the air, ending with a tumble through the dirt several feet away.

On the sidelines, Aile gasped quietly. "That's one of the attacks Giro used against me, back when I..." she trailed off, leaving the rest of the thought unspoken. Vent put a sympathetic hand on his sister's shoulder as memories of her fight with Giro came back to her, still fresh in her mind, even after all this time. Vent hadn't been there when Serpent had used the power of his Model W fragment to force the red Mega Man to fight his sister, but she'd told him about it later, and about how Giro had given up his life to allow her to Double Megamerge with Model Z. He could only imagine what it must have felt like as they were forced to duel to the brink of death, then cut down by Serpent and Prometheus afterward for amusement. Vent turned back to watching the battle taking place before them with a sick feeling in his stomach, knowing that the reason they were doing this was so that they'd have the strength to protect people from evils like Serpent and Albert.

Zero pulled his weapon from the ground and dropped his fighting stance. "That's three," he stated, allowing his Z-Saber to dissipate. "You all right? I may have overdone it a bit at the end there, I've never used-"

"I don't _think_ so!" Ashe shouted as she picked herself up once again, brushing some loose dirt and rocks off of her figure. "That last one didn't hit me, it just blew me over! You've got one more to go!"

Zero grunted. "Fine, have it your way. But I'm curious, why haven't you used your A-Trans yet?" His eyes narrowed s he regarded the banged-up Mega Man. "Are you trying to prove something by defeating me without it?"

The hostile look Ashe sent his way informed him he'd guessed her thoughts accurately. He shook his head, disappointed. "Stop being foolish. No matter who you're fighting, you should always use every weapon, ability, and technique available to you in order to ensure victory. Limiting yourself just to prove your skills is nothing but an immature way of trying to brag about how great you are - it won't prove anything. True skill lies in your ability to use every weapon in your arsenal to its full effectiveness, not in limiting yourself for the sake of your ego."

"Grr...all right then!" Ashe exclaimed angrily, which made Zero mentally smile to himself - if she was getting angry at him, that meant she knew he was right. Now that the Hunter girl was willing to use the entirety of her wide array of abilities, maybe she would actually prove to be a challenge.

_It always was X's incredible diversity and adaptability that made him the only Hunter to ever stand a chance against me,_ Zero reminisced, sparing a brief thought for good times gone past before Ashe rushed him again. His saber re-materialized in his hands as he rushed to meet her, and the battle was rejoined.

Assuming Ashe was clever enough that she wouldn't try the same thing twice, Zero pretended to pull his arm back for an overhand strike to see what the girl would do. She fired a Reflect Laser from one of her two guns, which Zero batted away easily, but was then surprised to see Hedgeshock rolling at his legs, spikes extended and sparking with build-up electricity. Zero hopped into the air and executed a quick Rolling Slash, barely missing the tiny hedgehog as she rolled under him.

Zero spun quickly around on one foot the moment he touched down, ready to dash towards Ashe and attack her while she was still in Hedgeshock's relatively vulnerable form. Instead he was forced to defend himself as Aeolus' twin short blades descended upon him, raining down in a flurry of quick slashes and thrusts. Zero's saber flashed through the air as he parried and dodged Ashe's furious assault, fighting defensively until he could gain the upper hand.

After weathering Ashe's initial series of strikes, Zero began to see the weaknesses in her swordsmanship. While she was no novice with the two swords she wielded, neither was she anywhere near Zero's level of experience with a blade. He waited patiently for the opportunity he was looking for, then struck. As Ashe aimed a sideways swipe at his neck, Zero abruptly dropped into a crouch, then spun in a circle, blade extended, aiming for the girl's knees. Realizing her weapons were in no position to parry the blow, Ashe shot backward with a blast from her hoverjets, barely dodging Zero's sword as it cleaved the air where she'd just been standing.

As Zero halted his spin he dashed forward to follow up, but was forced to dodge sideways as Ashe unleashed a pair of Plasma Tornadoes at him. As he turned back towards his opponent he saw Ashe flash with the white light of A-Trans, changing from Aeolus into Atlas, both Knuckle Busters firing at him almost before they winked into existence.

Zero kept moving to avoid the barrage of shots being fired at him, circling around Ashe as he slowly worked his way closer. Occasionally he abruptly reversed direction with a blast of his dash thrusters, preventing Ashe from firing too far ahead of him. As he closed in on his opponent he saw her stop firing one Knuckle Buster and start charging energy to unleash a powerful attack when Zero finally got within reach. With only one Buster's worth of projectiles left to avoid, it didn't take him long.

Not wanting to give Ashe a chance to use her stored attack, Zero opened with a charged saber swing as soon as he was within striking distance. Ashe nimbly hopped backward, then leapt forward with a furious yell as she brought her right arm around for a vicious overhead slam. Recalling this particular attack from his encounters with Fefnir in the past, Zero dodged to the side rather than jump backward. His memory proved to serve him well as a wave of flame burst from the ground where Ashe's Buster impacted it - if he'd moved away from her he'd have been hit for sure.

Refusing to let Zero escape her reach unscathed, Ashe growled and charged him. Knowing his Z-Saber would be unable to penetrate the two massive cannons on Ashe's arms, resulting in her successfully punching him in the gut, Zero dismissed his blade and instead braced himself as Ashe punched at him with meteoric force.

Zero winced as he caught her right-hand Buster in his left hand, struggling to keep it away from his body as she pushed forward with all her might. After a brief moment he felt the pressure let up a bit - he immediately threw out his right hand to stop the Buster on Ashe's left hand from colliding with his head, catching it as well. The two combatants then entered a duel of strength, with Ashe pushing as hard as she could to crush Zero between her two enormous arm cannons, while Zero struggled to keep them away.

If Zero had had control of his body's face, Ashe would have seen that he was grinning. _This is actually kind of fun,_ he remarked to himself. "Not bad Ashe, you can really be a pain when you put your mind to it," he said aloud.

"Shut up and let me hit you!" The Hunter girl growled in response.

"Not yet," Zero replied, then jumped up and gave Ashe a two-footed kick in the chest, releasing his holds on her Busters as she stumbled backward.

"That didn't count either!" She was quick to argue.

"Of course not," Zero said dryly. "You might do better if you tried being someone I haven't already defeated half a dozen times before." Somewhere off to his left he heard Model L bark out a laugh.

"Hmph, fine then! Model A, let's try this one out! A-Trans!"

It took a moment for Zero to recognize the pseudoroid that replaced the form of Atlas, since he'd never actually seen it before. _So she absorbed Ninetails' biodata after all. If I remember its abilities correctly, this should prove to be...interesting._

Ashe lead off with a volley of fire blasts from the ends of her tails, accompanied by the occasional larger blast from her mouth. Zero had to keep on his toes to avoid the barrage, hopping nimbly around the clearing while slowly working his way towards his opponent. As soon as he got in range, however, four of the pseudoroid's tails stopped firing and lashed out at him while the other five continued launching fireballs. The combination of projectile attacks and vicious tail swipes forced Zero back until he was out of tail reach, when Ashe went back to pummeling him with more waves of flaming projectiles.

_She's using the fact that my saber won't cut through solid objects to her advantage. Since she knows I can't cut her tails off she's freely exposing them to attack since I can't do anything about it. Clever girl._

Zero rushed under a volley of fireballs towards his foe, seeking to draw out some of her tails. As soon as he saw four of them stop firing he hopped to the left, feeling a rush of air pass him as all four tails zipped past him simultaneously at different heights. Ashe followed up her missed attack by sweeping all four of her launched tails sideways like a net - just as Zero had hoped. Milliseconds before another wave of fireballs reached him, Zero jumped to his right, going over two of the approaching tails, and brushing aside through the other two with his saber. He fired his dash thrusters as soon as his feet reached the ground, rocketing towards Ashe before she could bring any more of her tails into action. When he was only a foot away from her he unleashed a charged saber swing at her midsection - and hit only air.

_Damn, even faster than I thought,_ Zero cursed to himself as he spun around and saw Ashe a short distance away as she launched all nine tails at him from every angle imaginable. Zero took the only path available to him, leaping straight into the air just as the pseudoroid's attacks converged on him, barely evading contact with them all as they plunged into the ground where he'd just been standing. Seeing his golden opportunity, Zero fired a thrust from his dash thrusters that angled his descent directly towards Ashe, his saber held over his head in both hands in preparation for a powerful downward blow.

As he fell downward Zero watched as Ashe was enveloped in the white flash of A-Trans. Unsure of what to expect next, Zero carried through with his attack, swinging down at her with all his strength before Ashe could even complete her transformation. He felt his blade connect solidly, causing an explosion of light at the contact point - though it wasn't with Ashe's body, but with Vent's extended ZX-Saber.

With a gutteral cry Ashe pushed Zero away, launching him into the air again. She followed up with a Rising Fang, sending her soaring into the air after her opponent while a shockwave chased him along the ground below.

Zero twisted his body in midair to avoid Ashe's rising slash as it whizzed by mere inches from his face, then they both executed simultaneous Rolling Slashes. A shower of sparks sprayed through the air as the two energy weapons clashed several times within the space of a second, ending with a powerful downward blow from Ashe. Zero successfully blocked the strike, but the force of it sent him flying straight down to the ground. The earth cracked under his weight when he crashed forcefully to the ground, sending several small rock fragments and clouds of dust into the air around him.

Zero's instincts served him well as he immediately rolled to the side upon landing, narrowly dodging Ashe as she landed on the same spot he had a split second later, her blade held in both hands below her for a Skull Crush. As Zero got his feet back under him again he saw the Hunter girl spin and fire a charged shot from her ZX-Buster in his direction.

Zero used another of Model Z's abilities and concentrated power into his weapon for a brief moment, then leapt over the plasma blast. He used his stored power to extend the blade of his saber to almost three times its normal length, then brought it down in a wide vertical arc as he descended towards Ashe. The girl nimbly dodged sideways, then jumped over Zero's backhanded follow-up swipe and fired off a few rounds from her buster, forcing Zero to dodge them rather than meet her on the ground.

Eager to press her temporary advantage, Ashe immediately rushed forward to engage her opponent after she landed. Zero began charging his Z-Saber as he dashed to meet her. Just before the two figures came within range of each other they both veered to their right, came briefly to a halt as both realized they'd feinted to the side, then rushed at each other again. The air around the two crackled with energy as they both released charged saber attacks simultaneously, the two blades meeting in the air halfway between the two duelists. Each of them pushed with all their might to force the blades away from themselves, but it appeared to be a stalemate - until Zero kicked his right foot at Ashe's left leg.

The girl disengaged herself from the saber-lock and hopped backwards. As she landed she felt something graze across her chest, followed immediately afterward by a light impact. She blinked in confusion as Zero shouted, "Three!"

"What?" Ashe couldn't figure out what he was talking about. How could he have hit her from all the way over there? She touched her chest lightly where she had the contact and realized that she had, in fact, felt something cut her. But how did he...

It was then that Ashe realized Zero wasn't holding his beam saber anymore. Recalling that she'd felt something hit her afterward, she looked down and saw the hilt of the Z-Saber lying on the ground at her feet. Her eyes shot back up to glare angrily at Zero. "You threw your sword at me!" She cried indignantly.

"I did."

"How is that...what in the...what kind of person...gyah!" Ashe ranted angrily. "But now you don't have a weapon! What are you supposed to do without a weapon?!"

"I'd rather lose my sword than my life," Zero replied as he walked up to her and picked up the hilt of his Z-Saber. Once it was in back in his hand he dismissed it. "You thought you'd be safe from me at a distance because I didn't have any ranged weapons. Never assume you know everything your enemy is capable of. That way you won't be surprised if they do something...unorthodox."

Ashe grunted as she returned to her Megamerged form. "Fine, you win this round. But don't think I won't get you next time."

"I look forward to it. You were doing pretty well there for a while, gave me quite a workout. I was actually starting to enjoy myself."

Ashe tried to continue looking angry, but then broke into a smile. "Yeah," she agreed, "that was pretty fun. Maybe you're as good as everyone says you are after all." Then she frowned. "You know, it's really unnerving to fight someone who has their eyes closed the entire time."

"Sorry," Prairie said as she opened her eyes. "It's just that I'm less likely to interrupt Zero's control if I can't see what's going on. Besides, with some of the things I felt him doing, it might be better for my health if I don't see exactly what's going on."

Ashe chuckled. "I can see that."

"That was amazing, you two!" Came Aile's voice. Ashe and Zero turned to see the two siblings jogging up to them, expressions of astonishment on their faces.

"Yeah, that was a pretty intense fight," Vent agreed. "You both pulled off some pretty impressive moves out there." He turned to Ashe. "I know you didn't hit him, but you still did really great."

Ashe made a show of flicking back an imaginary strand of hair and pretending it was nothing, but Zero could tell that she was enjoying the praise - especially from Vent. "Well, I just thought I should set the bar high for you two. You won't get anywhere if you don't have a goal to shoot for. So what are you waiting for, Aile? Show this guy he can't go pushing us girls around just because he's got Prairie on his side!"

"Me?" Aile stammered, surprised. "You want me to fight him after what you just did? But...uh...I'm sure Zero and Prairie are tired, maybe after we take a break..."

"I'm fine," Zero replied plainly. Prairie smiled in agreement, since that was all she could do.

"He's the one doing all the jumping around. I'm just along for the ride."

Aile looked between Zero, Ashe, and Vent a few times, then sighed in defeat. "All right then, I'll go next."

"Look at it this way sis," Vent interjected, "you haven't had Model L very long. This is a great opportunity to try out anything you didn't get a chance to against those mavericks earlier. You don't have to worry about falling thousands of feet to your death, either," he finished with a grin.

Aile smiled and nodded at her brother, then the group split up, Zero and Aile squaring off against each other while Ashe and Vent headed for the sidelines.

"Oh, by the way, thanks for your help," Ashe said, giving Vent a pat on the shoulder. "Those muscles of yours came in pretty handy. I almost had him for a second there."

Vent wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. "Uh...right. Glad I could be of service...?"

* * *

_I can't believe I'm fighting Zero,_ Aile thought to herself as she stood with her trident poised. _How am I supposed to win this? He's a master of close-range combat, and here I am going up against him with a trident. Then again, Model L did say that if I were going to learn about fighting and controlling my emotions, it should be from Zero..._

"Hey Zero, could you...do me a favor?" Aile asked nervously.

"Of course, what's up?" Zero replied, his curiosity piqued.

"Could you...teach me how to fight...like you do? I mean, um...Vent was always the one who was better with a saber, and we both sort of just taught ourselves how to use it. I...I really think it would do me a lot of good to learn from someone like you - someone who has a lot of experience with these sorts of things, I mean." She chuckled nervously. "If I'm going to beat Aeolus the next time I see him, I need to know what I'm doing wrong."

Zero dropped his fighting posture and let his Z-Saber disappear. "Of course, I'd be glad to give you a few pointers. Needless to say I can't make you into an expert in a few minutes - especially since you're using a trident and I'm not - but it's excellent that you're willing to learn. This will actually help me out a lot as well - getting into an intense blade fight will help me get used to this body's speed in close range.

"Well, I guess the best way to start is to just go at it and see where you could use some improvements. Just stick to using your trident for now so we can concentrate on that." His Z-Saber appeared in his hand once again as he got into a battle crouch, the blade of his weapon running down the side of his back leg.

"All right, here I come!" Aile yelled as she dashed forward.

She opened with a quick forward thrust at Zero's chest, which he easily dodged with a sidestep to his left. Aile avoided his overhand counterattack by spinning to her left, bringing her trident around full circle to cut at Zero from the side, the momentum of the spin increasing the the force of the blow. Zero hopped backward out of the trident's reach, then dashed in close as soon as the attack swept through the air in front of him. Aile caught his downward slash with the back end of her trident, then struggled to keep a grip on her weapon as Zero pushed down heavily with his blade. She was so intent on keeping her trident between her and Zero that she was caught off guard when he suddenly dashed forward, shoving her off balance. Before she had taken two steps she saw Zero unleashing a charged attack and barely got her trident up to block it, only to find that Zero had dropped under her raised weapon and dashed forward, promptly slicing her across the knees as he zipped past.

"Damn!" Aile exclaimed, stomping the ground in frustration. "You're too fast!"

"It doesn't matter how fast I am, you left yourself open," Zero explained calmly. "When you attacked me after that spin you overextended yourself and crossed your legs, shifting your center of balance away. That's what made it so easy for me to shove you off balance, after which it was just a matter of overwhelming you before you could regain your balance. It's important that you keep in control of yourself, because as soon as you let your opponent begin dictating your actions it's all over."

Aile thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. I see what I did wrong, I'll make sure I don't do that again." She hefted her spear again. "Well, let's see what else I can do wrong," she said with a good-natured grin.

The two figures sparred several more times, each match lasting anywhere from fifteen seconds to two minutes, with Zero always emerging as the victor. After each bout, however, he always had a piece of advice for Aile on how to improve her skills or correct a mistake she'd made. Model L also occasionally added additional insight, but was largely silent.

"Watch my body, not my sword. The sword will tell you what's coming now, while my body will tell you what's coming next. Once you learn how to read your opponent's body movements you can predict what he's going to do and plan your attacks accordingly. The better you know your opponent, the farther ahead you can read them and plan your attacks accordingly. Know them well enough and you can force them into doing whatever you want them to, at which point you've already won."

"Keep a close eye on how I move my feet. As I mentioned earlier, it's important that a fighter keeps their center of balance under control - the same is true for your opponent. He can't move in ways that will throw off his balance, so you don't have to defend against attacks from those directions, freeing up more possibilities for you to attack from. My feet will tell you where I'm going, and if you can force me to go where you want me to, that's another degree of control you can use to your advantage."

"You missed it, Aile. I purposely over-extended myself but you didn't take advantage of it. You can't just worry about defending yourself, you have to be ready to strike whenever the opportunity presents itself. The longer the battle gets, the more chances there are that something will go wrong and you'll find yourself on the losing end of the blade."

"Sorry, I played a bit of a trick on you there. You have to keep in mind that while you know all of these tricks, so will your opponent. I made it look like I was off balance to goad you into attacking, then turned it around on you. Even when you're sure you've got a winning blow you have to be ready for a counterattack, because you never know what might happen next. Just because you don't think I can dodge you doesn't mean I won't. You have to be ready for anything."

Ashe and Vent watched in silence from the sidelines as Aile's ordeal continued. "She's really taking a beating out there," Ashe eventually remarked.

"Yeah, it'll do her good though," Vent replied. "Aile always favored the Buster over the Saber, so now that she has a trident for her main attacks it's good that she's getting practice with it. Besides, you have to admit that she couldn't possibly get a better teacher."

"Agreed." A thoughtful expression crossed Ashe's features. "You know, something's been bugging me for a while now. If you and Aile are twins, and you're both biomatches for Model X, doesn't that mean you should be a biomatch for Model L too?"

Vent thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, that would make sense, wouldn't it? I guess I never really tried to Megamerge with Model L on her own before, since I was already Model X's biomatch. Hmm, I'll have to ask Model L about it later." Vent's expression remained thoughtful as the pair noticed Aile and Zero had just finished another round of combat.

"Phew!" Aile said, panting for breath. That last round had been the longest she'd lasted so far - she'd even managed to nearly get Zero on more than one occasion. "I think I'm definitely getting better at this!" She said happily.

"Yes, you're a very quick study," Zero agreed. "While you still have a long ways to go, I think you've learned enough things to keep your mind on for one day. What do you say we have one real go at it and see how you do?"

"Okay!" Aile exclaimed cheerily. "I'll give it everything I've got, no holds barred! Get ready to lose, Zero!" She taunted good-naturedly, hoisting her trident once again.

"All right then," Zero replied as he adopted his fighting stance, "here we go!"

Zero's first attack was a high-speed saber rush, which Aile nimbly deflected by spinning her halberd blades around in a protective shield. As Zero paused for a brief moment to prepare a charge attack Aile dashed backward, firing several Ice Needles from the end of her trident as she did so to prevent Zero from chasing after her immediately. Her tactic succeeded, gaining her a short distance from her opponent as Zero was forced to duck and dodge around the flurry of frozen projectiles - from his previous fights with Leviathan Zero knew that attempting to smash the missiles would just cause them to explode, sending deadly frozen shrapnel into the air.

Taking advantage of the ground she'd gained, Aile charged power in her weapon as she fired her dash thrusters and maneuvering jets simultaneously, blasting herself into the air in a high arc. Zero finished dodging the Needles just in time to see Aile sail through the air over his head. Just as she passed over Zero the girl released the energy she'd been charging into her fist to create a massive ball of ice shards, then shattered the ball into a million razor-sharp ice missiles with a single swipe of her halberd. As the rain of icy projectiles descended upon him Zero unleashed the saber slash he'd been charging into the sky, destroying most of the crystals headed in his direction. The rain of frozen shards pelted the ground all around him as Aile landed a safe distance away, spinning around to meet Zero's next attack.

She didn't have to wait long. As soon as it stopped raining ice Zero rushed forward, thrusting his saber at Aile's chest. She nimbly swatted the attack to her left as she spun to the right, being careful to keep her legs from crossing as she kept her eyes focused on Zero, sliding both of her hands to the back end of her weapon. At the instant he began to reverse his forward momentum and ready a counterattack she thrust out with her spear, her increased reach allowing the deadly tip of the weapon to reach Zero while he was still too far away to strike back.

Zero caught the end of the halberd with an upward sword slash then dashed forward, sparks spitting out from his saber as it ran along the length of Aile's weapon. His blade caught on the other end of the trident a hair's breadth from Aile's hand as she shifted her weight slightly to pin Zero's saber between the spear and his own head..

"I can see...why you like...close combat," Aile panted as the two fighters struggled to gain the upper hand. "This is...actually...pretty fun!" Then Zero's arm flew into the air in a wide arc, the pressure he was struggling against suddenly gone as Aile blew herself straight up with a quick blast of her maneuvering jets. _Damn, she just tricked me into ruining my own balance. She really does learn quickly. _Dust billowed up in a cloud as Aile somersaulted in midair, whipping her trident around in an imitation of a Rolling Slash, but with increased reach thanks to the fact that she had a trident instead of the ZX-Saber she was used to.

Still slightly off-balance from Aile's unexpected maneuver, Zero knew he wouldn't be able to get his saber around in time to block Aile's attack. Instead he fired his dash thrusters backward at full power while dropping down nearly onto his back to gain a few precious inches of space. He barely managed to slide out of range before Aile's halberd crashed into the ground where he'd just been standing, the intense force of the attack sending a shower of rock and dirt into the air as the halberd blade cleaved through the ground. Zero could feel the shock of the impact from where he now stood several feet away.

Zero used the power he'd been charging to extend his blade using the same Model Z technique he'd used against Ashe, then leapt forward and swung his saber in a mighty downward slash. As his massive weapon slammed into the hard-packed dirt he saw that Aile had nimbly leaped backward out of range - she had recovered from her massive strike much faster than Zero had predicted she would. The girl then dashed and jumped forward, her trident held over her head as its blade also extended to form an enormous ice crystal eight feet long and three feet wide. As she reached the apex of her leap she swung down hard, launching the gigantic crystal straight at Zero. He cleaved the massive ice blade in half with an upward swing of his still-enlarged saber, only to find Aile flying down through the frozen shards at him, her trident pulled back for a charging swing.

As Zero began to bring his saber up to deflect the attack he was suddenly distracted by a sudden flash of recognition. Something about the way Aile was coming down at him...the way she held she held her trident; the excited look in her sky-blue eyes as she fought with all her might; the sly, confident expression on her face...it all felt somehow oddly familiar...

_Wait, doesn't Aile have green eyes?_

Zero let out a startled gasp as he noticed that Aile's eyes weren't the only things that had become more familiar - her entire face seemed to have shifted in subtle ways, becoming something Zero instantly recognized. _There's no way I could possibly forget that face...but, what does it mean? Is Model L...?_

He didn't get to contemplate about what was happening any further as the blade of Aile's trident slammed into his chest, knocking the wind out of him as he tumbled back several feet, landing flat on his back in a daze. He'd been so caught up in his thoughts he'd forgotten to defend himself from her impending attack.

"Zero, what happened?" He heard Prairie ask after he'd skidded to a painful halt. "I felt every muscle in my body suddenly go rigid and then you just...stopped moving. I didn't get in the way, did I?" She sounded concerned.

"No," Zero replied, slowly gathering his thoughts. "No, it wasn't anything you did. I just...got distracted, that's all." He slowly picked himself up off the ground and looked over at Aile, who was still standing where she'd landed a few feet away, a confused expression on her face.

"Zero, what happened?" The girl inquired. "You started to block my attack, but then you just sat there and watched me hit you. Is something wrong?"

Zero shook his head. "No, nothing's wrong. I let something distract me, that's all." He smiled to hide his thoughts. "You did a good job of doing what I've shown you. You're a very quick learner." _Perhaps even a little too quick..._

"Aile, that was amazing!" Ashe yelled jubilantly as she and Vent ran up to the pair. "You actually got him! I don't know what Zero was teaching you out here but it definitely paid off!" She clapped a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You might even be better than me now," she finished with a grin.

"It wasn't me, really," Aile replied, slightly embarrassed at the praise. "Zero could have blocked it, he said he was-"

"It doesn't matter, Aile," Zero interrupted. "If I lost my concentration like that in a real battle I'd be dead right now. It was a fair win, you should be proud of yourself."

"Yes, you did a very good job, Aile!" Prairie said with a smile. "Getting a compliment from Zero is high praise indeed."

Aile stared at her for a second, then grinned and nodded. "Thanks Prairie!"

"So if Aile managed to hit you, I suppose that means I have to try and beat you?" Vent said to Zero, grinning nervously.

"I'm afraid I'll have to interrupt, actually," Prairie said before Zero could respond. "We've been out here for quite a while now. We should head back before it starts to get dark. I still have a lot of things to take care of before we leave, so if Zero thinks he's gotten enough practice for one night...?"

"Yes, I'm feeling much more comfortable with this body now," Zero replied. "I think we all learned something here, if we keep pushing ourselves all it'll do is tire us out. It's going to get pretty busy for us in the next little while so we should rest while we can." He turned to Vent. "Looks like you and Model X are off the hook this time."

Vent shrugged and scratched his head. "Well, it's not like I'd last very long with just my Busters, anyway. Maybe if you ever let me have my ZX-Saber back, then I'd stand a chance."

Zero chuckled. "I think you might do a little better than you think," he said, then disappeared in a white flash as he broke his link with Prairie. Suddenly in control of her own body again, Prairie squeaked in surprise and barely caught herself as she stumbled forward.

"I'd appreciate if you'd give me a bit of warning before you do that," she said grumpily as she readjusted her hat, while Vent, Ashe, and Aile all restrained the urge to laugh. Prairie then turned and headed back for Cygnus base while the three Mega Men deactivated their Megamerges and followed suit, conversing amongst themselves cheerily as they trailed after the Guardian Commander.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

So, that was incredibly long O.o. It takes a long time to choreograph fight scenes too, and since this part had two of them, it took a really long time to write. It was hard to not let anyone get hit for such a long time too. Anyway, I hope this absurd amount of fighting makes up for the lack of it in the previous chapters. I actually skipped the Aile fighting and went on to write part 17, then came back and wrote it like two months later. Hopefully you can't tell the difference.

Before anyone complains, I'll admit it: this is my poorly-disguised excuse to have an Ashe vs. Zero fight. I couldn't help myself, it's just too fun to NOT do. The only important things that happen here are that Prairie tells everyone else about Omega, I explain how the Zero-Prairie "megamerge" works, and that interesting little thing with Model L at the end, which will be explained next chapter (but you're free to take guesses at it, of course; while I doubt you'll get it right exactly, you can probably get in the right ballpark, anyway). I also did need Aile to get a little better with her trident so she doesn't get her butt completely handed to her again, and what better way than to have a little sparring lesson with Zero? And as many people pointed out (and by this point, probably thought I forgot about it) I wanted to have Ashe transform into Ninetails at least once in this fic. Shame on you if you forgot she could do that! I didn't actually write it in the story back when she got it, I just figure it's something Model A does automagically after fighting a pseudoroid. The big long-winded explanations and graphic effects in the game are just so the player has something to see while playing, they don't actually have to happen.

I'm hoping the action sequences aren't too hard to follow, since they can get pretty convoluted at times. It's hard to picture a fight in my head, and then write down exactly what's going on without getting into every boring little detail. I could have made the Ashe fight go on even longer, but I figured it was already complicated enough to follow.

Prairie's "megamerged" appearance is basically a combination of her regular self and Model Z (duh). I left her long coat there because it's as close as Zero is ever going to get to a cape without it being completely cheesy. "But where did Prairie's hat go?" You ask? The same place Vent's cargo pants and two feet of brown hair go.

"Slam Down" is the boss fight music from ZXA. I originally called it "Overloaded", but after seeing the number of times people get...well, slammed down, I changed the name. Besides, this is almost like a boss fight! It's just one of those ones that it doesn't matter whether you win or lose. Incidentally, if there's any Tales of Vesperia fans reading this (hi!) I noticed Fury Sparks (from the ToV soundtrack) works pretty well here too. Then again, it works for just about any fight scene ever, so...

I didn't really make up anything original in terms of attacks for this fight, most of them are from the games. I did find different uses for some of them though. Original stuff will come up later, when I start doing original things with the biometals. Stay tuned to find out what I mean. ;)

Not sure when the next part is going to go up. I'm having a bit of writer's block on part 18 and I hate posting things so close to where I'm writing, because then I can't go back and retcon stuff without people knowing (mwahaha). Parts 18-20 in particular are going to be so intertwined that I'm not going to post 18 until they're all done, which might be a while.

Anyway, we'll see how things go. Thanks for reading/reviewing, as always! I've got more hits in 24 days of April than I did in 30 days of May, which means I must be doing something right.


	17. Part 17: Metallic Soul

Part 17: Metallic Soul

As the group returned to the Cygnus base they met with Fleuve, who was practically beside himself with excitement.

"Commander, I have excellent news!" He yelled as he saw Prairie approaching, waving his arms to grab her attention.

"What is it, Fleuve?" Prairie asked. Before leaving for her 'training sessions' she had left her second in command with instructions to look through the two files Ashe and Vent had managed to unearth from the Legion databanks to learn as much about their opponent as possible. She hoped his excitement had something to do with what he'd found.

"I've been analyzing those files you gave me and they are indeed, as you hoped, designs for the Virus that Master Thomas has been spreading. While I may not understand the entirety of the technology involved, I believe I've discovered a means of protecting ourselves from it."

"Excellent!" Prairie exclaimed. "How quickly can you...do whatever it is you need to do?"

"Well, I'm afraid that's less of a certainty, at this point," Fleuve replied. "You see, it all has to do with the biometals. Something about the interface through which they interact with a humanoid body protects them from the affects of the Virus. I believe I might be able to use this fact to create a vaccine of sorts, but since both the Virus and the biometals are both still a mystery to me, it's going to take some time to work it all out. I couldn't possibly give you an accurate estimate at this point - it could range from hours to days, or possibly even weeks."

"So the M.E.G.A. system acts as a protective barrier," Zero pondered aloud as he hovered up out of his place in Prairie's pocket. "Do you think this 'vaccine' of yours would be able to cure someone already infected by the virus? The Maverick Wars ended after Cyber Elves were developed to reverse the effects of the Virus without harming the infected reploid. If we had the ability to do something similar we could save a lot of innocent lives."

Taking Zero's new form in stride, Fleuve shook his head sadly. "It seems unlikely that anything could cure a person infected by this new Virus. The old Virus functioned by suppressing a reploid's own thought processes and rewriting portions of them to take control. In order for this new Virus to work on both human and reploid bodies, Thomas has changed it so that it does much more than that.

"The process by which it infects reploids is still quite similar - it replaces the reploid's programming with its own directives. However, instead of just writing over it like the previous Virus, this one removes the underlying programming entirely and takes complete control over every aspect of the reploid's functionality. It basically deletes whoever is currently inhabiting the body and replaces it with a pre-made maverick persona, custom-built by Thomas.

"For humans the process is quite different, and much more painful. The Virus infects the cybernetic implants given to all humans at birth, which are connected directly to the nervous system and brain in order to function. The Virus then begins interacting with the host body through the implants' interface systems, the most likely results of which would be psychosis, delusions, and hallucinations. After receiving a sensory overload the human's mind eventually shatters, at which point the Virus can assume nearly full control of the body."

"The man we saw get infected in Legion did mention something about hearing voices," Prairie supplied. "That certainly does fit with the symptoms you're describing."

Fleuve nodded, then continued. "In both cases, recovery by any means is nigh impossible. If the Virus can somehow be removed from the host - and considering the fail-safes and survival mechanisms built into the Virus architecture, that's a _very _big_ '_if'_ - _repairing the mental damage done to a human mind would take years, maybe even decades. It's more likely that the body would die long before the mind returned to any resemblance of normalcy. In the case a reploid host, the Virus assumes such complete control of the victim that if one were to remove all of the infected parts of the programming there would simply be nothing left. It would basically be an un-programmed reploid body, similar to the state they're in before being programmed with personalities. You could recover the body, but the mind who had once been there would be gone forever."

Ashe leaned over and placed her mouth near Aile's ear. "Could you tell me what he just said in fewer words? I didn't understand most of that," she whispered.

"Basically, we can keep people from getting infected, but anyone who's already caught the Virus is screwed," Aile whispered back, earning a smile and nod of appreciation from the Hunter.

"So how difficult will it be to distribute this vaccine of yours?" Prairie asked. She was trying to form a timetable in her head of how soon they could strike back at Thomas and end the threat he posed before things got even further out of hand.

"I have deciphered the system that the Virus uses to distribute itself digitally across communications networks, so if I can work that into the vaccine program then we should be able to distribute it by simply transmitting it across any communications channel. Anyone who comes into physical contact with a vaccinated terminal will be protected from the Virus. Keep in mind that all of this only applies so long as Thomas doesn't modify the Virus any further."

"I don't intend give him the time to do that," Zero replied firmly. "This definitely sounds promising. Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Most certainly," Fleuve replied, bobbing his head vigorously. "It's been quite some time since our last analysis of the biometals. In fact, I've yet to have an opportunity to do a scan of Model A at all. It would be a tremendous aid to my research if I could spend a few hours analyzing each of you again. The sooner I understand exactly how the M.E.G.A. system interacts with the humanoid body the sooner I can find a way to adapt it to protect us all against the Virus."

"That sounds like a good plan," Prairie said with a nod. "I think we could all use some time to ourselves this evening. Fleuve, we'll leave the biometals with you to analyze for the night."

"Excellent! If you'll just come this way..." Fleuve quickly took off into the Guardian Base, leading them to his lab.

"Ashe, I don't want to get analyzed!" Model A complained from the girl's belt. "That guy creeps me out!"

"Hush, you," Ashe admonished her biometal. "Stop thinking about yourself all the time. We're trying to save the world here! Besides, we owe the Guardians so much by now, the least we can do is let them have a look at you."

"It's not really so bad," Model X chimed in. "Fleuve may be a little overbearing at times--"

"A little?" Model L muttered quietly.

"--but he does mean well. This will also give us an opportunity to get to know each other better and plan a strategy for...what's to come."

"Yes, we definitely need to have a 'chat'," Zero remarked, looking pointedly at Model L, who pretended to ignore him.

"I can't hear what you guys are arguing about, but I hope it's not a debate over whether you're going to help us out or not," Prairie interrupted. "I'd hate to have to coerce any of you into doing something you didn't want to do, but in this case I'm afraid I'm forced to look at the bigger picture." Then she followed after her second in command.

"It's okay Prairie, we understand," Vent said reassuringly as he followed after her. "There's a lot at stake here, and Fleuve's research could prove to be the key factor that wins this battle for us. If there's anything we can do to help, you can be sure we'll do it."

"Yeah, what he said!" Ashe happily agreed, sticking close to Vent's side as they headed for the Guardian Base. "Don't worry about Model A, he's just being his usual whiny self. We'll be happy to help!"

"Hey! I'm not whiny!" Model A protested.

"Of course you aren't..." Model L remarked quietly to Aile, earning her a fit of giggles as they followed after their companions.

* * *

The four biometals sat quietly on the scanning bed in Fleuve's lab, a variety of beeps and lights coming from various places around the room. The glass dome over the scanner shut out most of the noise, while at the same time allowing the biometals to speak without Fleuve overhearing them from his desk on the other side of the room.

"So, are you enjoying being a biometal without a body?" Model X asked Zero, who grunted.

"I'm already used to this sort of thing. It's actually not all that different from being a cyber-elf. It just feels...heavier."

"You were a cyber-elf?" Model A gasped.

"I still am, actually, but since cyber-elves can't normally interact with the physical world at all, I placed myself inside Model Z. Not the best solution, but better than nothing."

"So you cheated," Model L huffed. "I don't see why you couldn't just die like the rest of us. Why did you get to become a cyber-elf?"

"You'd have to ask X about that one; I don't even know how he did it. One moment I was dying on board the Ragnarok, the next I was a floating ball of data. He always seems to have some sort of grand scheme in mind that he doesn't want to tell me about, but I have to deal with it, regardless." "My namesake's knowledge of the current dilemma would certainly be a boon," Model X remarked. "If he does indeed know more about what's going on than he told you, then maybe he has a better idea of how to handle it than squaring off with Omega."

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Model L cut in. "You know him better than the rest of us, are you sure this is the time to be dealing with that...that monster?"

"That's what I thought too, but Prairie managed to convince me otherwise. With the amount of time we've got I don't really have much choice - I need a new body, and Omega's is the best available."

"Would someone tell me who this Omega guy is, anyway?" Model A asked. "Why are you all so afraid of him? What did he do that makes him so evil?"

The other three biometals looked at each other for a few moments.

"I'm not telling him," Model L said flatly. She turned to Zero. "You do it."

Zero sighed, then looked to the curious Model A. "Several hundred years ago, during the ancient" -- Zero chuckled at the word- - "Elf Wars, Omega nearly destroyed the entire world. He was eventually defeated by myself and X, the reploid whom Model X is based upon, and sent into space. Much later, he found his way back to Earth and nearly destroyed it again with the help of his creator, a man named Dr. Weil. I stopped him before he did too much damage, but afterward Weil resurrected him without my knowledge. He's incredibly dangerous, and more importantly, incredibly hard to destroy, due to the powers of the Dark Elf."

"I doubt he has the Dark Elf anymore," Model L pointed out. "That's one thing in our favor, at least."

Zero nodded, sort of. "Prairie's construction specifications are on par with what mine were, back then. I should be able to handle him much like I did before."

"Well if you're the only one who's going to be doing any actual fighting, there's no reason for all four of us to go with you," Model X said. "We should leave at least one Chosen here at the base, just in case Legion decides to stage a preemptive attack."

"Agreed. However, I definitely need you and Vent to come with me."

"Oh? Not that I have any objections, but may I ask why?"

"Prairie believes we'll need you to open the seal placed on Omega's location. Besides, if...if I should fail, then I think we can all agree that you and Vent stand the best chance of defeating him in my place."

"Zero, that's no way to be-" Model L began to protest, but Zero cut her off.

"I'm just being realistic. It's better to be over-prepared than caught by surprise."

Model X was silent for a moment before speaking. "Yes, I concur. Considering X's past history with Omega, it certainly is the most logical decision."

"I don't quite understand everything you guys are talking about, but you'll have a hard time keeping Ashe in the base while you go off to fight this big evil thing at the bottom of some old ruins," Model A informed them.

"Especially if you're taking Vent with you," Model L quipped offhandedly.

Zero regarded her for a moment as he pondered what she meant by that, then nodded. "All right then, that means Aile stays behind. Do you think she'll be okay with that?"

"Oh, I'll make her okay with it," Model L assured him. "It'll do her good to let her brother off the strings for a little while. Besides, if we do get attacked it'll be the perfect opportunity for her to try out the new tricks you showed her today."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Model X said sternly.

"That reminds me," Zero said, thinking back to his duel with Aile earlier in the day. "You and I need to talk about-" He was interrupted by the sound of the glass dome over the scanning bed sliding open to reveal Ashe standing over top of them.

"Hey guys!" The Hunter said cheerily. "I'm just here for Model A, Fleuve says he's done scanning him and I, uh...need him for...something." She smiled nervously, then reached down and scooped up her biometal. "Later!"

"Hey, put me down! We were just deciding-" Model A's protests were cut off as the glass dome slid back into place, cutting the remaining three biometals off from the world once again.

"Well, no big loss there," Model L remarked.

Ignoring the jibe, Zero picked up where he left off. "As I was saying, you and I need to talk. What exactly did you do to Aile while we were fighting today?"

"Do to her? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb with me, _Leviathan_," Zero said angrily, irritated that she was trying to feign ignorance. "I _know_ something strange happened out there. Ever since you made a biolink with Aile she's been adapting to you at an incredible rate. She handles that trident like she's had it since the day she was born." His glare intensified. "That wasn't just Aile I was fighting out there today. Tell me Leviathan, _what are you doing to her?"_

"Yes, there is definitely something strange going on," Model X interrupted before Model L could reply, his tone carefully neutral. "Though the others are unaware, I happen to know that you were not previously a biomatch for Aile. Not only that, but you still aren't a match for Vent, despite the similarities between their biodata. Tell us Model L, how did you suddenly become able to Megamerge with one twin, but not the other?" He also turned to look intently at the biometal in question. "What are you trying to do?"

Model L glanced between her two interrogators for a moment, then let out a heavy sigh. "I guess there's no hiding it, is there?" She grunted in frustration. "I didn't think you'd catch on so quickly. I guess I should have known better."

"Leviathan..." Zero began.

"I know, I know, I'm getting to it." Model L sighed again, even heavier this time, before continuing in a very quiet voice. "It's just...well...I'm tired of it all."

Zero and Model X glanced at each other in confusion. "Tired?" Model X finally asked. "Tired of what?"

"Of this!" Model L exclaimed. "Of being a biometal! A tool, a commodity to be traded around, used by whoever we can form a biomatch with. I'm tired of my power being used for the wrong purposes and being powerless to do anything about it! I'm tired of being treated like a piece of property!" She was silent for a moment. "I'm tired of not being in control of my own destiny anymore," she finished, her voice quiet but firm.

Silence descended upon the three biometals as Model X and Zero absorbed Leviathan's speech - for she was indeed speaking as the reploid once known as Fairy Leviathan, not as a biometal.

Zero could sympathize with how she felt. He'd only been a biometal for a short time, but already he found it frustrating that he was no longer in control of his own actions. Within his fist-sized frame he housed an immense power, but the responsibility that came with it was no longer his; instead it rested on the shoulders of whomever he Megamerged with. But despite that, he still felt as though it fell to him to keep his power from being abused. He was sure Leviathan felt the same way - even though it was Thetis who had helped Albert revive the Ouroboros, he'd used her powers to do it. She could not in good conscience completely absolve herself of the guilt that she helped cause the near-destruction of the entire world.

"I understand how you feel, Model L," Zero said sympathetically. "You were always the one who had trouble sticking to orders, always wanting to be in control of her own actions. But what does all of this have to do with Aile?"

"I think I can guess," Model X said. "You're trying to do a Biomerge, aren't you?" Model L's silence confirmed his suspicions. "I thought so. Don't you know how dangerous that is?"

"I am aware of the risks," Model L said quietly. "This isn't something I decided on overnight. I've put a lot of thought into this. Recent events have only made me even more sure that this is the best choice for me to make."

"Risks?" Zero asked, a tinge of anger creeping into his voice. "What risks? What's a Biomerge? If you're putting Aile in danger-"

"Relax, Zero," Model L said calmly. "Model X was referring to how dangerous it would be for me, not the girl. Nothing will happen to her."

"Model L is modifying her M.E.G.A. system's biolink protocols," Model X explained. "The system is originally designed to compatible with a specific subset of humanoid biodata in order to increase the probability that a compatible host can be found. The compatible sets of biodata are different for each biometal so that no one person can ever be compatible with more than one biometal at a time - one person with that much power would be far too dangerous. However, due to the relatively abstract nature of such a biolink it is impossible for a biometal to fully integrate itself with the host, resulting in decreased output levels.

"Model L is modifying her biolink protocol to only work with one very specific set of biodata. By doing this she can create a more powerful version of a Megamerge, called a Biomerge. It's an ability that all biometals are capable of, but I never thought any of us would actually use it."

"So what does that mean, exactly?" Zero asked.

"It means that, when I'm finished, Aile will be the only person in the entire world that I can form a biolink with," Model L said.

"A Biomerge is also much more powerful than a Megamerge," Model X continued. "Because the biolink formed during a Biomerge is tailored to the biodata of the host body, the M.E.G.A. system can transmit significantly larger amounts of data from the biometal into the host's body than would otherwise be possible. This means Aile can not only learn from Model L at an exponentially increased rate, but she can also draw out much higher levels of power than would be possible during a regular Megamerge. Although she doesn't know it yet, Aile is likely capable of using Model L's powers in ways previous Chosen Ones could only dream of."

"Thetis couldn't even handle the Overdrive system," Model L huffed. "Such a boring Chosen."

Zero thought about this for a moment. "So if Biomerging is so powerful why don't all of you do it? What's the catch here?"

"Such an extensive rewrite of the biolink system protocols can't be reversed - otherwise every biometal would do just that every time they found a new Chosen One. Once the changes are made, not only will Aile be the only person with whom Model L can form a biolink with, she will be the only person with whom she will _ever_ be able to form a biolink with."

"Meaning if something happens to Aile that makes her unable to form a bioink with me, I effectively become a large talking paperweight," Model L finished.

Zero turned to regard Model L again. "Are you sure this is such a good idea? Aile's not the kind of person to sit on the sidelines, she's going to be putting herself in danger along with all the rest of us. The possibility of...something happening to her is quite high."

"I know, that's one of the reasons I'm doing it," came the reply. "I used to think that even if my power were used for reasons I didn't agree with, I could still live with it if it meant I was doing something other than sitting around being useless. That's why I made a biolink with Thetis and helped Albert create the Ouroboros.

"However, after seeing my power bring the world to the brink of destruction, I decided I needed to take a closer look at my priorities. Two hundred years ago I fought to protect the world we lived in; I don't think I could live with myself if I helped to destroy it now. In the end, I decided that I'd rather sit on the sidelines and do nothing than risk contributing to the end of civilization as we know it.

"I believe in Aile, and in what she and the rest of the Guardians are fighting for. I also know what it's like to be in her situation, forced to watch while the people she cares about risk their lives day in and day out, never knowing when one of them might not come back. Every time I see that, I think back to the day when Harpuia left me in the Neo Arcadia repair bay to go stop Omega from merging with the Dark Elf. He was the closest thing I had to a family, and to watch him rush off to a battle that I knew was suicide nearly tore me apart. Truth be told, it was rather a rather unexpected feeling; I was so confused, I didn't know what to do about it. All I knew was that I'd never felt so powerless in my whole life.

"So I decided that if I were going to choose one person to use my power, it would be Aile. She reminds me of myself in a lot of ways. If I'd been a born a human, I'd like to think I'd be quite a lot like her. If my power allows her to fight to protect what's important to her, then I can't think of a better way to be used."

"Have you asked Aile how she feels about all of this?" Zero asked. "You're putting an awful lot of responsibility on her."

"Aile has nothing to do with how I decide to live out the rest of my existence. This was a decision I had to make by myself, for myself. If she decides to cast me aside, then so be it. It may not be the most favorable path for my destiny to take, but at least it will be one of my own choosing. I'm done with being a prize for whomever Albert, Thomas, or even the Guardians, decides is worthy."

An uneasy silence descended in the glass dome again. Zero was torn; while he didn't like Model L's idea or train of thought, he could definitely understand her reasoning. What scared him most was that, were their roles reversed, Zero would probably have done the same thing. The idea of not being in control of his own destiny wasn't one that appealed to him. Even X's minor meddling pushed him to the limit - and X was his best friend. If he were forced to watch as his powers were used for purposes he didn't like, he would also be willing to take desperate action to stop it, no matter how risky it might be.

"Don't even try to talk me out of this," Model L said, breaking the silence. "When I saw the Ouroboros rise into the sky and start spewing destruction across the globe I realized how badly I'd messed things up and that, unlike with Neo Arcadia and Omega, this time I wouldn't get an opportunity to atone for it. I was going to have to live the rest of my life with the knowledge that I helped bring about the end of the world just because I couldn't bring myself to give a damn.

"When that thing sank back into the ocean, I realized I was going to get a second chance after all, and this time I'm determined not to make the same mistakes over again. I've made up my mind about this and there's nothing either of you can do to convince me otherwise."

Zero regarded her carefully for a few moments before responding. "I wasn't going to," he said. "Not only is it plain you've made up your mind, but you're right. This is your decision, not ours. Even if we don't agree with you, we have to respect that your life is your own, and you should be free to live it however you want. After all, that's what the Resistance was fighting for, all those years ago - the right to live their own lives and make their own decisions. I'd be a pretty big hypocrite if I went back on that now.

"But you'd better make sure nothing happens to Aile. I made a promise to protect her, and I'm not going to let anyone prevent me from keeping it, including you."

"Relax, Zero," Model L said reassuringly. "I wouldn't even dream of bringing harm to the girl now - she's quite literally more important to me than my own life, such as it is. Protecting her is even more important to me than it is to you." She swiveled to look at Model X, who still remained in silent thought. "Well, what about you? You're not the real X, but that doesn't mean I don't value your opinion anyway."

Model X sighed heavily. "Well, I hate to admit it, but Zero is right. While I still think this is a rash and dangerous course of action, it's not my place to decide how you run your life. Maybe if I were the real X you'd be willing to listen, but I'm not."

Model L snorted a laugh. "I never really listened to him, either."

"However, I do think you should tell Aile about this," Model X continued. "While she may not have the right to decide what you do with yourself, you can't deny that it will affect her significantly. She has a right to know about the responsibility you're placing on her shoulders."

"Don't worry, I'll tell her when the time's right," the female biometal replied with a nod. "Truth be told, I haven't quite reached the point of no return yet - the modifications have to be done gradually in order to acclimate the host's body to the increased information flow. It will be some time yet before I reach that point. Until then Aile will just feel a little bit stronger than usual, and perhaps discover a new technique or two that she was previously unaware of.

"If, after I tell Aile everything, she decides she wants no part of me, then I'll do my best to fade silently into the dark depths of history until the day this stupid tin can I'm trapped inside of falls apart around me. This is my one last attempt to do the right thing. I've had enough second chances that if I screw things up yet again I don't deserve another shot at it.

"I'm going all-in, boys. If I mess it up this time I'm out of the game for good. And I think the worst part of it all is..." She breathed a heavy sigh, and a hint of sadness crept into her tone. "Honestly, I'm not even sure I want to win anymore."

* * *

Vent stood alone on the landing deck of the Guardian Base, staring up at the bright gibbous moon as the cool night breeze blew softly through his long brown hair. Until a few moments earlier he'd been accompanied by Aile, but she had decided to turn in for the night. He, on the other hand, still had several things on his mind that were making him restless, so he'd remained behind to get some time alone in order to sort out his thoughts.

_So much has happened in the past few days. Legion being overrun by mavericks, losing Model Z, Zero's appearance, Aile getting her own biometal, the return of the Maverick Virus, finding out Model H is our enemy, and now Prairie wants to let Zero use her body to fight what is supposed to be one of the greatest threats to existence in recorded history. If someone had told me a week ago that all of this stuff was going to happen, I'd have laughed until my sides hurt._

Vent was okay with a lot of it, for the most part. Rogue viruses, maverick armies, and enemy biometals were all par for the course for him. While the stakes may be a little higher than usual, he'd already experienced two world-threatening events in the short time he'd been a Chosen One and lived to tell about it, so he was sure that they'd somehow manage to pull through once again.

However, Vent wasn't sure how he felt about some of the more personal aspects. Initially he'd been nervous about Aile becoming the Model L Mega Man, but after seeing her fight against Zero that afternoon he was sure she'd be fine - in fact, he was more worried for himself than he was for his sister. She'd looked like a completely different person in that duel, fighting with a fierce intensity that he'd never seen before, like a demon possessed. Considering how well he knew his twin sister, it was actually a little scary to see her acting like that._ It's like...she's becoming someone else, someone I don't know. Well...everyone changes, I suppose. Even if...I don't want them to._

Then there was the loss of Model Z, who had been a close friend to him for almost five years now. Not only that, but he was the last reminder Vent and Aile had of Giro, protecting them in their mentor's absence. Losing Model Z had been like severing the final ties to their old teacher, which was something Vent still wasn't sure he was ready to do. Apparently Model Z had known Giro even longer than Vent had and was full of little tidbits of wisdom he'd gleaned from the time he'd spent with the young reploid man. There were times when Vent felt like it wasn't Model Z talking to him, but Giro, somehow speaking through the biometal from...wherever it was reploids went when they died. Vent never felt like that when Zero talked. _Although, I can definitely see the similarities between Zero and Model Z. Sometimes they really do seem like they're the same person..._

Of course, there was also the fact that Vent felt nearly naked on the battlefield without Model Z and his trusty ZX-Saber. It wasn't that Model X wasn't powerful on his own, but as evidenced in his fight against Aeolus, plasma weapons weren't very useful once he was engaged in close combat. He missed having the adaptability of being able to switch from the ZX-Buster to the ZX-Saber in the blink of an eye, allowing him to fight on equal terms up close and from afar.

Thoughts of fighting caused Vent's mind to drift onto the topic of tomorrow's battle. If Omega really was the threat that Prairie and the biometals thought he was, then it was completely crazy to get Prairie involved so directly. She was the center of all Guardian activities and responsible for so many things that if something were to happen to her the entire organization would likely grind to a halt. Prairie was a Commander in every sense of the word, issuing orders to the various cells of Guardian operatives in place all over the world and directing their efforts where they would be the most effective in their battle against Maverick outbreaks and Model W's. While it was true that Albert's defeat and the destruction of the Ouroboros would likely result in a significant drop in the frequency of Maverick raids, now the Guardians were faced with the threat Legion posed from within. Vent was sure that Prairie would play an important role in deciding the outcome of the battle they all knew was coming: the assault on Legion Headquarters to destroy the source of the new Maverick Virus, Thomas.

But it wasn't just that he feared for Prairie's safety because of how important she was to the Guardians. To Vent, Prairie wasn't just his commanding officer. Over the years since he and Aile had become Chosen Ones and joined forces with the Guardians Prairie had been a source of both comfort and friendship for Vent and his sister as they struggled to deal with the loss of Giro and continue the seemingly impossible fight against Model W. Now Vent had come to think of the leader of the Guardians as sort of a big sister, with her cheerful attitude and optimistic view on life helping the twins to cope with the mental stress that came with the territory of saving the world. It was hard for Vent to imagine spending his days fighting mavericks and saving lives without Prairie there to greet him at the end of the day to tell him he did well and that she expected a full report on her desk by morning. He was sure Aile would say she felt the same way, if he pressed her about it.

Of course, Vent knew he was spending his time thinking about things like this in order to distract himself from what was really on his mind, but that he really didn't want to think about. "Ashe..." He sighed.

"What about her?" Said a female voice from off to his right. Startled, Vent turned to see a Megamerged Prairie standing in the elevator doorway as it slid shut behind her.

"Prairie!" Vent exclaimed. "I didn't hear you come up. What are you doing out here?" "Oh, I just came up for some fresh air," the Guardian Commander said with a shrug. "I've been in the command room all evening making sure everything won't fall apart while we take our little field trip tomorrow and it was getting too stuffy to think straight in there. I didn't think I'd find anyone else up here at this hour, though." She gave him an inquisitive look as she joined him by the railing. "So, what were you saying about Ashe?"

"Oh, uh, it's nothing," Vent said, trying to dismiss the issue. He didn't even want to think about it himself; it definitely wasn't a topic he wanted to talk over with Prairie, especially with Zero around.

"Hah, that means it's _definitely_ something," Prairie said accusingly. "Don't think I'm going to let you get off the hook now. Is there something wrong between you two? I noticed you were acting funny during our battle practice."

"No, it's nothing like that," Vent said, waving away her worries. He rested his forearms against the railing and looked down into the darkness below. After struggling to find a way to put his thoughts to words for a few moments he took a deep breath to steady himself. "It's just...I don't know how to feel about her."

"Really?" Prairie said, surprised. "Odd, you seemed to be getting along with her fine to me. Personally I think she's a wonderful person and I'm glad she's here to help - we need all the allies we can get at a time like this. But even barring that, I think the tough face and rough attitude she puts on is just a result of how she grew up. Inside she seems like a genuinely nice person who cares about others and wants to help in any way she can." She paused briefly to smile. "A lot like you, actually."

Vent was nodding his head all through Prairie's speech. "Yes, that's pretty much how I see it too," he agreed. "But that wasn't what I was talking about."

"Oh? Is there something else?"

Vent took another deep breath as he tried to put his thoughts into words. "I don't know," he finally said. "Whenever I see her, I start to feel all...weird, inside. Like I don't know what to think." Frustration was painted on his face as he struggled to describe himself. "I think about her fighting the same kinds of battles I fight, and it's like...I just want to...take care of her."

Silence hung in the air for a few moments, then Vent pounded a fist against the deck railing and gave a frustrated yell. "Dammit, that sounds so lame! That's not it at all. It's like...there aren't words for it!" He shook his head and tried to start over. "When I think about what we're all going to be doing tomorrow, I know that you and Zero are going to be in the most danger but...for some reason I'm worried about Ashe the most. I know, it's silly. She can handle herself as well as the rest of us, and it's you and Zero that I should be worried about. But...I can't explain it. I want...I want to keep her safe." As he finished speaking he resumed looking out into the darkness of night, his frustration at being unable to adequately express himself still clear on his face.

"I...see." Vent didn't even turn to look at Prairie as she considered his words, which she did for quite some time. "Why haven't you told her how you feel?" She finally asked.

"Because it wouldn't be fair!" Vent exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "Ashe has the right to live her life however she wants. It wouldn't be fair for me to ask her to do any differently. No matter how badly I want to keep her safe, no matter how much I want to protect her, if she doesn't want to be protected then there's nothing I can do about it. What she wants for herself is infinitely more important than what I want, and I just...have to learn to live with that.

"Besides, I think I've freaked her out enough with how I've been acting around her lately that she's probably scared of me by now." He sighed heavily. "I feel so bad about it, but...I guess I just couldn't help myself."

There was another pause as Prairie considered how to respond. "Did you ever think..." She stopped to clear her throat. "Did you ever think about what Ashe might be feeling? Maybe she's just as confused about her feelings as you are."

Vent chuckled. "Ashe, not sure about what she wants? I doubt it. She's always known exactly what she's after, and I'm pretty sure...well, let's just say that I don't think I'm on the radar at the moment. If anything I've just managed to push myself farther down the list with the weird way I've been acting lately."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Prairie said, an oddly thoughtful look on her face. "I think...maybe you don't know her as well as you think you do. Maybe she just needs some time to sort out how she feels about...everything that's going on."

"You think so?" Vent glanced up at Prairie and she gave him a small smile of encouragement, which elicited another heavy sigh. "Well, I wish I had your optimism. No, I think Ashe's priorities definitely lie somewhere else. I'll just have to deal with how I feel about her by myself, in my own way."

"Vent..." Prairie trailed off, unsure of what she could say to comfort her friend.

"Say, why are you two Megamerged anyway?" Vent suddenly inquired, changing the topic. "It feels weird talking to you when I know Zero's listening in. Not that I think he can't keep things to himself, but it's just...weird, telling these things to someone I've only known a few days."

"Yeah, don't worry about Zero. I don't think he's even paying attention at the moment, his mind is on other things. As for us being Megamerged, we thought it would be good for us to practice being in this form so that we could get more comfortable with it for tomorrow. Can't be too prepared, y'know?"

"I see. I guess that makes sense. But weren't you trying to keep this a secret from the crew?"

Prairie shrugged. "We only Megamerged after leaving the command room. Like I said, I wasn't expecting anyone else to be out here so I didn't think it would be a problem. We'll return to normal before we head back down."

Vent nodded in understanding. The two friends continued to lean against the deck rail and stare off silently into the night for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts. Eventually Vent pushed himself upright, saying, "Well, it's getting late, I should be getting to sleep. You should think about heading to bed as well, you're the one who's got the toughest job coming up."

"Y-yeah, you're right," Prairie said, stumbling over her words as her attention snapped back to her present surroundings. "Um...good night, Vent. Try not to worry too much about...well, anything. Worrying about a problem usually just makes it seem bigger than it really is. Everything will work out, you'll see. Just give it some time."

"Thanks Prairie," Vent said with an appreciative smile, then headed for the elevator. After the door slid shut and he began the trip down to the deck where his room was, he heaved one last heavy sigh. While talking to Prairie had made him feel better about what plagued his thoughts, he still wasn't any closer to deciding what he should do about it.

* * *

Aeolus stalked quickly down the halls of Legion Headquarters, not wanting to spend a moment longer there than he absolutely had to. Nobody had bothered to clean up the "mess" that was left over from when Thomas engaged his mad plan, so the entire area was beginning to reek of rot and decay - not that the mavericks milling through the corridors and rooms cared in the least, which was yet another thing that unnerved the green Mega Man. How did Thomas keep all of these mindless, barbaric automatons from tearing each other to shreds? Most of them were Legion civilians who had been completely consumed by the Maverick Virus before they could be torn apart by other mavericks, soulless humans and reploids who stared mindlessly at walls and windows and anything shiny that happened to catch their eye. Aeolus figured that Thomas must have some sort of low-level control program embedded in the Virus that he was using to control his unwilling converts, but he hadn't had a chance to investigate any further.

"I do not like being summoned like a servant," Model H said. Ever since Thomas had unleashed his Virus on the unsuspecting populace, Aeolus refused to disengage his biolink in any place where he might risk becoming infected. Thomas had assured him that he was immune to the effects of the Virus, but Aeolus still didn't trust the man in the least - he had too many tricks and secrets buried in his long white sleeves.

"Neither do I," Aeolus quietly confided in his companion, "but for the moment he holds all the cards. Until we can find an opportunity to seize the advantage, we must do as he says. Besides, he has yet to do anything that I wouldn't have done myself, don't you agree?"

Model H grunted. "I do not condone the use of the Maverick Virus, regardless of its effectiveness. It cannot be controlled, no matter what Thomas may think of his abilities. There are other methods."

"Like what? The Virus will eliminate all who oppose the Purification in mere days. It would take years to ensure victory by any other means, and I refuse to wait that long for something that is almost within my grasp as we speak!"

"Impudent fools, both of you," Model H snorted. "You have no idea the chaos the Virus may yet unleash."

"If you're so against it then why are you still here?" Aeolus sniped at his angered biometal. He smirked when Model H voiced no reply. "Precisely. You know Thomas is the most effective way of carrying out our plans, so shut up and go along with it for the time being. As long as we remain free from the effects of the Maverick Virus we'll be fine."

"Do not grow so overconfident that you believe yourself to be invulnerable. Thetis and Atlas made that mistake and paid for it dearly. Need I remind you of the results of your last encounter with Zero and the other Chosen Ones?"

"I had everything under control," Aeolus growled under his breath, turning the final corner to his destination. "You should not have forced me to retreat."

"Again your arrogance causes you to underestimate your opponent. Even in his decrepit state Zero poses a greater threat to you than all the other biometals combined. Besides, even if you did defeat all four of them - a highly unlikely event, I might add - what then? Single-handedly destroy the flagship of the entire Guardian organization? My powers may be great, but that lies outside the realm of even my abilities."

"I would have thought of something," Aeolus grumbled, then paused before a great set of wooden double doors, the handles and outer frames gilded in gold, like a king's portal from olden days. "I always did think he cared a little too much for the dramatic. Now stop arguing with me, we need to present a united front in his presence."

"That much, at least, we agree upon," Model H replied. "But rest assured, this conversation is far from over."

Aeolus dismissed his biometal's remark with a sneer, then pushed on the two heavy wooden doors. The door swung open easily on well-oiled hinges, revealing the spacious room previously reserved for the private use of the Three Sages, but which now served as the base of operations for Thomas' scheming. The walls of the room consisted entirely of clear glass windows supported every few feet by gilded pillars that stretched from the floor to the top of the ten-foot high ceilings. The entire room was empty, save for the massive figure standing off to one side scratching his massive red beard as he gazed down at the chaotic city streets below.

"You've arrived." The air seemed to resonate with the deep bass of Thomas' voice as he spoke, which simply added to the man's intimidating appearance. Aeolus had seen bears that were smaller than this man-turned-machine. "What kept you?"

"I had...other business to attend to," was Aeolus's vague reply. "What I do in my spare time is none of your concern. I do not appreciate being summoned like a peasant on your whim."

Thomas chuckled, a deep rumble that sounded akin to a mountain shifting. "Of course you don't, my friend. You should know that I wouldn't summon you if it weren't regarding a matter of utmost importance." He turned to Aeolus, a broad grin splitting his features. "I know how you hate the smell of this place," he said, motioning to the state of the building around him.

Aeolus crossed his arms as he gave Thomas a scrutinizing glare. "Get on with it, then. What do you want?"

Another rumbling laugh escaped Thomas's lips. "It's not what I want, it's what you want," he replied. "I have recently received intelligence about the current location of the Guardian Base and the biometals traveling within. It seems they are planning a little...'field trip', we'll call it, to a nearby ruin. Something about getting a new body for Zero to inhabit, as far as I can understand things - Siarnaq was a little vague on the details. Regardless, with all of the Mega Men away from their ship it should be a relatively simple task to eliminate both them and the Guardians in one fell swoop."

"So you want me to lead one of the attack forces? Very well. I'll take my remaining forces and pursue the biometals immediately. What are the coordinates?"

"Ah, no, that's not quite it," Thomas said. "I have decided to leave the matter of the biometals in the hands of the only one of my comrades who has yet to fail me." He smiled insincerely in an attempt to remove the sting of his words, but failed.

"What did you just say?" Aeolus said, his voice bristling with suppressed anger.

"Oh come now, I'm only speaking the truth. Look at it this way: now you'll have another chance to destroy the ship that vexed you on your last outing. Consider this an evaluation of your devotion to our cause. I have no use for a warrior who cannot even bring down a wounded beast without my help."

Aeolus glared murderously at Thomas' mocking grin for a few moments before spinning on his heel and storming out of the room. "Fine, I'll do your dirty work!" He shouted back from the door. "But I will not abide being mocked by the likes of you!"

Thomas shrugged nonchalantly. "Prove to me that you're worthy of an apology and you will have it. In the meantime, I will transmit the current location and status of the Guardian Base to your comm unit. I've merged your remaining air forces with the ground troops previously under Thetis's command. That should give you far more firepower than necessary to carry out your mission." He grinned one last malicious grin, then turned and went back to staring out over the chaos he'd wrought in the streets below. "Good luck," he said mockingly.

Aeolus slammed the heavy wooden doors as hard as he could, infuriated at the way Thomas was treating him. "That arrogant son of a-"

"You're one to talk," Model H remarked, which only served to enrage Aeolus even further.

"Who asked you!" He yelled, then stalked furiously back down the hallway in the direction he'd come from. "I'll show him! He thinks I'm some sort of pathetic toady he can order around while he sits back and laughs, letting me do all of his dirty work. I'll teach him not to underestimate me!"

"'You? What about me?" Model H asked angrily. "Do I truly count for so little in your eyes? Am I merely a tool that provides you with the means to an end?"

Aeolus stopped mid-stride, carefully considering Model H's words. "No, you are not," he said after a few moments, in a far calmer tone than Model H had thought he'd hear. "I apologize, Model H. You are far more than a tool to me." He sighed heavily. "I...need you. Not just your power, but...your support as well."

Model H was shocked into silence by the boy's reply. He'd never heard Aeolus speak in such a tone, nor say such sincere words. "I...see," was all he could think to say.

"Listen, Model H," Aeolus continued, his voice obviously distraught, "I need...I need to know I can rely on you. I know that what Model L said to you, about that Neo Arcadia thing, I know it had an effect on you. If we're going to do this, I need to know that you're with me all the way, no matter what happens. We can't afford to waver in our resolve now, not after the things we've done."

Model H remained silent for a few tense moments. "Model H! Are you with me or not?!"

"I promised I would see this through to the end, no matter the cost," Model H replied quietly. "You are right. We've past the point of no return; the only path that remains is forward. Rest assured, my Chosen One, I will support you until the day we succeed or die trying."

"Thank you, Model H," Aeolus said reverently. "I will try my best to ensure it is more of the former and less of the latter."

* * *

As the heavy oak doors slummed shut, Thomas's wicked grin grew even wider, eventually splitting his entire face in two. It always put him in a good mood to see such a beautiful plan as this one came together so very nicely. He honestly didn't care one way or the other what happened with Aeolus at 'Cygnus Base', as the Guardians called it - perhaps he'd win, perhaps not. Either way, things would work out in his favor in the end. He also fully expected Siarnaq to fail in his attempt to stop Zero and the other Chosen Ones from acquiring the body of Omega. Although he would prefer that Zero be the victor in that little bout, his destruction would serve to further his plans just as much.

_I must remember to thank Zero when he comes to kill me. I've spent years looking for the body of Omega, and now not only has he uncovered its wherabouts, but he's going to bring it right to me. Once I've acquired the body of the most powerful reploid to ever exist, no one will be remain to stand in the way of the Purification. The Guardians, the Hunters, and all of the Mega Men...I'll crush them all like the flies they are._

It was only then that Thomas allowed himself to bellow out the hideous laughter that he'd been suppressing ever since he'd received Siarnaq's incredibly comprehensive reconnaissance report. Nothing in the world made him feel better than knowing he was winning.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Dun dun dunnnnnn. If you didn't know where Siarnaq was already, you should definitely have figured it out by now.

So, you probably guessed what happened with Model L last chapter easily enough, and now you know why. And before you go thinking it, no, the rest of the biometals aren't going to start Biomerging too, that would just be boring and predictable (read: uninteresting). It does mean I get to be more creative with my next Model L/Aile fight scene though! :D

This chapter has a really big secret in it. I think I left enough hints to figure out what it is, but if not, you'll find out later. Feel free to guess, but I'm not telling even if you get it right. I'm a jerk like that. ;)

Metallic Soul is from the ZX soundtrack, and I honestly can't think of a specific place where it plays. It's the sort of background-ish, ominous thing that frequently plays whenever Vent/Aile is talking to a biometal. I mostly picked it because the name fit the chapter, but it's hard to say if the music fits it or not just because it's so...vague and abstract.

Sorry this update took so very long, I've been somewhat preoccupied lately. Matters only got worse when my copy of Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier (damn that's a mouthful) arrived last Thursday and promptly took over my life for the five days it took me to beat it (heart KOS-MOS). But now that I've finished both it and Odin Sphere (great game btw) I should have less things distracting me from writing. Unfortunately, however, is the fact that part 18 is turning out to be _f-ing huge_, which means it'll be a while before I can get it out the door. I might also need to wait until parts 19 and 20 are finished because the three are very closely related and I might need to zip back and forth between them to change things as I nail down the finer details. For a little bit of a preview, part 18 is called "Doomsday Machine", and part 19 is called "Cannon Ball". If you know the names of the soundtrack, that should be a hint as to what happens in each part. ;)

Don't ask me why Aeolus knows what a bear is, or how big they are. He just _does._


	18. Part 18a: Doomsday Machine

Part 18: Doomsday Device

"How much farther did you say it was to this cave?" Ashe asked as she stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

"Not much farther," Vent replied from his place a short distance away. "The cave mouth is halfway up that rock face up ahead. We should be there in twenty minutes or so."

Ashe could feel her arms and legs getting heavier just looking at the mountain Vent was pointing at. "We have to climb _that_? Seriously?" Vent grinned and nodded. "Ugh! Can't we take a break first? I haven't walked this far in...I don't think I've ever walked this far!"

Vent was about to make a teasing remark when Prairie suddenly appeared beside them, having returned from her scouting position up ahead. "That's actually not a bad idea. We didn't see any mavericks in the area so it should be safe to stop here for a few moments before heading up the mountain."

"Great!" Ashe exclaimed happily, then plopped down on the ground right where she was standing, falling backward onto the grass and staring up at the clear blue sky. "Man, this place is really out in the middle of nowhere. No wonder it took so long to find the biometals! Did the Guardians really set up a research lab all the way out here? Must have been a pain in the rear to drag the equipment all the way out there."

"Actually, we didn't," Prairie said with a chuckle as she and Vent found comfortable places to sit and rest their feet. "We used the Guardian Base to transport enough materials to build a transerver deep inside the mountain, then we used it to transfer in everything else. Sis sealed access to it at the same time she sealed the cave passage, but Vent reactivated it again after trying to stop Serpent from getting the Model W Core."

"You're telling me we could have transferred straight into the mountain?" Ashe yelled, sitting back up so she could shoot an incredulous look at Prairie. "Then why the hell are we walking through this stupid forest? You feel like taking a stroll or something?"

"I tried," Prairie said, concern coloring her voice, "but I didn't get a response from the transerver. I'm not sure what could have happened."

"Maybe mavericks got in and damaged it?" Vent suggested.

Prairie shrugged. "Maybe. The transerver room is on the way to where Omega is so we'll check it out if we have time." A thoughtful expression crossed her face. "But I find it odd that the mavericks would leave it alone for all those years the cave was sealed, only to break through the barriers and damage it now."

"That's because you've never been there before," Vent said knowingly. "That place...doesn't really make sense, not even physically. I think the Model W Core must have warped the space around it or something, because...well, you'll see for yourself when we get inside."

"That's not because of Model W," Zero stated. "The spatial distortions you saw were being caused by Omega. His...unique relationship with cyber elves gives him the ability to warp the physical world and merge it with Cyberspace. It started to happen all over the world the last time we fought. Being contained in a single place for so long has likely concentrated the effect and...well, like you said, it's hard to explain. You two will see what we mean soon enough."

"I hate it when you say things like that," Ashe said, then flopped back down again.

"So, Prairie..." Vent said, breaking the silence that had settled between the three a few moments later. "You're a reploid, huh?"

"Yeah, sorry for not telling you and Aile," Prairie replied sheepishly. "I never meant to hide it from you guys. Honestly, I thought you would have figured it out by now."

"I just thought you aged really well," Vent admitted with a laugh. "But if you're a reploid, why don't you have the identification mark?" Vent pointed at her forehead, referring to the triangular-shaped mark that all modern reploids had on their foreheads to differentiate them from humans. The technology used to build reploids had evolved to the point where without the mark it was impossible to tell a human from a reploid unless you cut it open.

"I was made a long time ago, before the ID process was implemented. I managed to...get around the registration process when it was created due to a...well, let's just say it was a legal loophole, and leave it at that."

"But those laws were created over a hundred years ago. Prairie, exactly how old are you?"

"One hundred fifty years, eight months, and some odd number of days," Ashe filled in from her resting place on the ground, which Prairie confirmed with a nod.

"My early memory records are missing, but Sis and I did enough research that we discovered I was created on a Neo Arcadian production line sometime in the year two thousand, one hundred ninety-two. I don't remember anything about my life until Sis found me two years after that while she was running out of Neo Arcadia. Shortly after that is when I first met Zero."

"So that's why you recognized him when he appeared in the mine," Vent said. "You'd already met him before."

Prairie nodded. "Yes, I was with Zero the last time he was alive." An odd look crossed her face. "It sounds really weird to say something like that."

"It's even weirder from my point of view, I assure you," Zero replied.

"So you...don't have a termination date, do you?" Vent asked, and Prairie shook her head. "Wow, that's pretty...wow. I never thought that someone I knew would turn out to be an ancient relic from the past." Then Vent realized exactly what he'd just said and started waving his arms frantically. "I mean, not that you look really old or anything, you look fine, I mean, wait, that doesn't sound right either. What I meant to say was, uh..."

"It's all right Vent, I know what you mean," Prairie said with a laugh. "Thirty-two years ago, Sis upgraded my body to this," she motioned down at herself. "I don't have all the latest developments in reploid technology, but Sis's designs were pretty far ahead of the curve to begin with. I'm more than a match for anything being made today."

"I don't doubt it. I've known you for almost five years and I couldn't tell the difference." A sheepish look suddenly crossed his features. "You don't mind if I tell Aile when we get back, do you? I was never good at hiding anything from her, she'll probably weasel it out of me one way or the other."

"Of course not. In fact I should have told you both the truth sooner. I try to keep the fact that I don't have a predetermined lifespan a secret so that nobody gets jealous and turns me in, but I think by now I can honestly say my secret's safe with you."

"And me," Ashe piped up, waving her arm.

"Of course, Ashe." Prairie stood, brushing off the grass and twigs that stuck to her coat where she'd been sitting on it. "Well, we should get moving again. We may not be in a huge hurry, but we don't exactly have all the time in the world either." Then she headed off into the woods to take point once again.

"If you're still tired I could take over for a while," Zero pointed out.

"Sure!" Prairie replied happily.

"That is _so_ not fair," Ashe grumbled as she reluctantly stood up, then turned to Vent. "As a proper gentleman, you could offer to carry the lady for a distance, you know."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm just an uncouth barbarian," Vent replied, then ran ahead to catch up with Prairie and Zero before Ashe could finish charging her pistols.

* * *

Vent's estimate proved to be accurate as twenty minutes later the trio found themselves at the cavernous entry into the mountain's interior. Since the young Guardian was the only one who'd previously been to the cave and knew the way he took the lead while Ashe continued to bring up the rear.

"I thought you said this place was going to look all trippy," Ashe complained as she looked at the boring cavern walls. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary in here."

"Just wait until we get past the biolock, then you'll see what I was talking about," Vent assured her.

"Zero, what's wrong?" Prairie asked when she noticed Zero, who was still in control of her body, was shooting suspicious looks into the surrounding darkness of the poorly-lit cavern.

"Something about this doesn't feel right," he replied uneasily. "We haven't seen a single maverick since leaving the A-2 transerver. I know that the Model W Core isn't here to create them anymore, but with all the distance we've travelled you'd think there would have seen at least one straggler along the way." He grunted. "I don't like it."

"We finally get a lucky break and all you want to do is complain about it?" Ashe said incredulously. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I say."

"I don't believe in lucky breaks," Zero grumbled, earning an exasperated sigh from Ashe.

"I agree with Zero," Model X broke in, "something is out of place here. We should be cautious."

"What could possibly be waiting for us in here?" Ashe argued. "The only other people who know exactly where we went are Aile and Fleuve. There's no way Thomas could have known to send anyone out here to stop us. You're all just nervous and letting your imaginations get the better of you, there's nothing to-" She abruptly cut off as the group rounded a bend and entered a brightly lit room. Ashe noticed that the walls were no longer made of stone, but of heavy steel plates. A pulsing light emanated from the opposite end of the room, where there stood a metal door surrounded by a series of symbols. "What's that?" She asked, amazed.

"That's the old biolock," Vent informed her. "It was the first line of defense implemented by the previous Guardian Commander - Prairie's sister - to keep Serpent away from the Model W Core. I needed the six passwords stored in the biometals to open it, but unfortunately I was too late and in the end he beat me to it anyway."

"Luckily for us, after a biolock is opened it stays that way," Prairie pointed out. "Let's go, we can't afford to waste time staring at pretty lights."

The group quickly crossed the room and approached the door. There was a hiss of air as the door detected them approaching and released its pressurized air seal, then slid open noiselessly. Ashe followed her companions through the portal, then gasped when she saw what lay within.

The cavern floor was covered in a light fog, easy to pick out from the way it reflected the strange green light that seemed to be emanating from everywhere, but nowhere in particular. The rocky ground was broken and uneven; it reminded Ashe of a jigsaw puzzle when you first took it out of the box. Strange, twisted growths grew from the ground in several places, forming grotesque green pillars that framed their path through the cave. Far off in the distance, Ashe saw that one wall of the cave wasn't actually the cave at all, but a large metallic surface.

"That's what's left of the Ragnarok," Prairie said when she caught Ashe gazing off at the crashed monstrosity. "The fog is likely a result of some active but malfunctioning systems inside."

"Yeah, and the ground was probably torn up by the impact...but what are all these weird green things?" Ashe wondered aloud.

"Sometimes it's better not to ask," Vent replied, then pointed off into the distance. "There's an entry point into the wreckage over there; that's where we're headed. But I'm warning you, it's just going to get weirder from here on."

The three continued their trek across the broken ground, taking turns at being amazed by the strange environment. Ashe was the most taken aback, having never seen the full extent of the effects that a Model W could have on its surroundings. _I knew they were bad, but...this doesn't compare to anything I saw while fighting Albert. Now I'm even more relived that we stopped his plans when we did._

As they neared the far side of the immense cavern Zero became increasingly uneasy. "There still aren't any mavericks in the area," he eventually pointed out. "Vent, I know for a fact that you didn't destroy every maverick in here when you came through looking for Model W. Even without the Core here to create more this place should still be crawling with them."

"You're right. Someone or something must have come in here and cleared them out at some point. But who would...?"

"Vent, move!" Ashe yelled as she shoved Vent aside just in time to avoid being hit by several rounds of plasma fire. The three Mega Men all ducked behind the nearest piece of debris as they suddenly found themselves under heavy gunfire from a small army of Galleon troops.

"Where the hell did they come from?" The Hunter yelled as she returned fire at a nearby cluster of enemies, wiping them out with a well-placed Reflect Laser.

"I'm not sure, but if they're working together it can only mean one thing!" Prairie shouted back.

"Thomas knows we're here, and we walked right into his trap!" Vent finished. "What do we do now?!" He poked his head out long enough to fire several X-Buster shots into the distance, then quickly retreated as he was attacked from another angle. "These guys are everywhere!"

Before Zero could respond he felt the ground beneath him began to tremble, slowly increasing in intensity until he had trouble staying on his feet. The earth began to heave upward in several places as the quakes worsened further, causing some of the less stable of the green pillars to collapse and bury scores of Galleons beneath them. Luckily the ones around the trio of warriors were sturdy enough to withstand the quake.

The tremors were strong but brief, ending only moments after they'd begun. "What in the world was that?" Ashe exclaimed. "You guys didn't tell me Innerpeace had earthquakes!"

"That wasn't an earthquake," Zero replied. "It was far too controlled. They probably just used a seismic charge to bury the entrance. Even if we could blast our way through all these mavericks, I have a feeling the only way we're going to get out of here is to go deeper and hope we can get the transerver working again."

"I think you're right," Prairie said. "We should be able to fight on better terms once we're inside the wreckage and not out in the open like this. At this point, going deeper is definitely our best bet."

"Then let's get going!" Vent yelled as he and Ashe fired off a few final blasts, then made their escape amidst a hail of return fire.

* * *

Aile paced restlessly down the corridors of Cygnus Base, a low growl coming from deep in her throat as she continued to fume silently.

"Aile, would you please calm down and stop walking circles around the hallways? You're starting to make me dizzy," Model L complained.

"It's not fair! Why did I have to get stuck babysitting the base? It's not like they can't defend themselves, they've got a small army's worth of artillery in the storage sheds and transervers to bring in reinforcements." She grunted in frustration and spun around another corner, nearly bowling over an unsuspecting Guardian in the process; she barely noticed him.

"Yes, but if any of the other Mega Men attack we're the best defense the Guardians have against them. Besides, Prairie and Zero are the only ones who will really be doing anything down there. There was no need for of you to go."

Aile's pace gradually slowed as Model L's words leeched the forced anger out of her step. "I know," she said, resigned. She finally came to a stop, then leaned against the wall of the corridor and slowly slid to the ground. "It's just...they're all putting their lives on the line out there, and I'm left to sit here and wait for them to come back. I feel so useless here. I could be out there helping them!" She punched the wall sideways with her fist. "I hate waiting!"

"Patience is a virtue few of us are born with," Model L chuckled. "Look, I'm sure they're all fine. Even if something unexpected does come up, they all know how to handle themselves. Personally, I'd be more concerned with this base than with those three."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Model H never liked losing. There's no way he's going to just sit back and let the Guardian Base escape after he came so close to catching it, _especially_ if he thinks Zero is here. He has a little rivalry with Zero, though I don't think the feeling is mutual. It's probably driving him crazy that, after seeing his crimson rival for the first time in nearly two hundred years, the first thing he did was to promptly lose once again." She cackled at the dark humor of the situation.

"So you think Aeolus is going to attack us here? How would he even know where this base is? Prairie kept it out of the Legion records, there's no way they could know we're here."

"That's a rather naive way to think. Remember, we're fighting one of the Sage Trinity - they're called 'sages' for a reason. Always assume your opponent knows all of your secrets, that way you won't be surprised when you find out he actually does."

"That's a rather pessimistic view of things."

"As far as wars are concerned, pessimists tend to live longer than optimists," Model L replied sagely. "Make no mistake, Model H will be here sometime soon. He knows our ship is crippled so he'll attack while we're weakened, that way he knows we won't be able to escape. He'll come down hard and fast, and with just a little bit more force than he thinks is necessary, just to be safe. It's the way he thinks."

"I still think you're being paranoid, there's no way-"

Aile was interrupted by the sound of explosion, accompanied by the walls shaking. "What the hell was that?" She exclaimed just as her communicator beeped to life.

"Aile, there's been an explosion in one of the transerver rooms nearby and I can't get a signal to anyone stationed there. I need you to go find out what happened."

"I'm on it," she replied, then quickly Megamerged and dashed down the corridors. "Looks like you might be right, Model L. Taking out our transerver would be a good precursor to an attack."

"Of course I am," the biometal replied haughtily. "Men are _so_ predictable."

* * *

Aile approached the transerver room cautiously, taking note of the scorch marks along the walls and the shattered remains of the door. Even though she couldn't see inside the room from where she was standing, she was pretty sure she wouldn't find the transerver in any salvageable condition. She hoisted her trident in front of her as she stepped cautiously into the doorway, ready for anything.

The inside of the room was empty, save for the charred remains of the transerver. The top had been blown to pieces, leaving just the transport pad and the bottom half of the supporting arm attached together. The rest was strewn about the room in tiny pieces, along with a few other more gruesome things.

"I think I can guess what happened to whoever was stationed here," Aile said grimly, "but I wonder what caused the explosion?"

"The damage to this room and the hallway, as well as the intensity of the tremor we felt earlier, are both in line with the destructive force unleashed when a small plasma reactor overloads, much like the ones found in most modern plasma weapons - a Galleon blaster or a standard-issue Guardian rifle, for example. If it went off directly beside the transerver, the blast would definitely be enough to blow the transerver apart without blowing holes in the walls. The door, however, is made from weaker alloys and couldn't take the shock, apparently."

"But why do that? If someone were trying to take over the base, wouldn't it make more sense for them to hold the transervers and bring in reinforcements than blow them up?"

"Good point...oh, dear, this could be bad. Aile, have Fleuve try to contact the other transerver rooms."

She did so, and Fleuve responded a few moments later. "Odd, I'm not getting a response from any of them. What's going on down there?"

Aile took off at a run down the hallways of Cygnus Base while she yelled at Fleuve over the communicator. "Fleuve, Thomas knows where we are. Not only that, he's managed to get ahold of our transfer codes. Send a squad to the each of the other transerver rooms and tell them to hold position until I get there, I'm on my way now. Meanwhile, get the base prepped for combat and set all units on standby. We're going to have company real soon."

* * *

The door of the command room slid open as Aile approached, revealing a scene of organized chaos beyond. Half a dozen operators sat in front of terminals around the room, tapping frantically on their keyboards and issuing orders through their headsets. Guardian unit commanders milled about the room, some of them brushing past her as they rushed out the door while others were coming in. In the midst of it all, Aile saw Fleuve standing over a table in the center of the room with several large holograms of what she assumed was the surrounding terrain displayed above it.

"The transerver rooms have been secured and shut down, but if we start them up we're just going to get bombarded with maverick signals again," Aile announced grimly as she approached the table. "What's the situation up here?"

"You were right," Fleuve said grimly, giving her a brief glance of acknowledgment. "Shortly after your warning we picked up a massive maverick buildup leaving Legion's scrambling zone, heading straight for us. At the speed they're traveling they'll be here inside of thirty minutes."

"That fast?" Aile said in disbelief. "I thought the scrambling zone ended a hundred miles north of here."

"It does. We've determined they have several air and land transport vehicles. There are also some amphibious ones traveling down the nearby river, though not nearly as many."

"Told you it would be hard and fast," Model L remarked.

"How many signals?" Aile asked, ignoring her biometal's smart-mouthed response.

"It's hard to tell, but we estimate somewhere between twelve and thirteen hundred," one of the nearby operators informed them.

Aile gasped, but Model L was simply confused. "Is that all?" She asked.

"What do you mean, is that all?" Aile exclaimed. "That's almost more mavericks than there are Guardians, and I'm not talking about just in this base! How many more mavericks could Thomas possibly have?"

"Quite a few. I'd say that's only about a third of the total forces Thomas could put onto the field. I wonder where the rest of them are...?"

"What's she saying?" Fleuve asked urgently. "Are you telling me there could be additional enemy forces out there that we're unaware of?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Model L replied. "With Model H, what you see is what you get, most of the time. He'd rather bring everything out and crush you completely than keep a reserve for for emergencies. It's more efficient that way, you see. But there's definitely a large number of troops missing from this battle."

Aile conveyed her remarks to Fleuve, who became suspicious. "And how exactly does she know this?"

"You're forgetting that, up until a few days ago, I was leading a part of that army," Model L pointed out.

"You're sure Model H is leading them?" Aile inquired.

"Well, it's definitely not Model P. He'd never even make a direct assault on his lunch, let alone a military base. Hell would freeze over before Model H let Model F boss him around, and I'm positive Model H is out there somewhere. So yes, I'm quite positive it's Aeolus and Model H we're up against.

"Besides, Atlas's unit doesn't have any air support, that's Aeolus's territory. If Model F were out there we'd already be getting pummeled by long-range artillery fire, and judging by the energy readings on this map, I don't think they've got any. Those things light up a power grid like you wouldn't believe."

After Aile went through Model L's reasoning with Fleuve, he studied the girl and her biometal carefully for a few moments. He looked down at the holograms again, where the wave of red dots were slowly creeping toward the yellow circle that represented Cygnus Base and the blue dots of the Guardian forces deployed around the area, and after a short mental deliberation, he looked back to Aile.

"I think she's probably right, on all accounts. Model L, you seem to know the enemy better than they know themselves, which I believe might give us the edge we need to get out of this alive. Aile, I'm ordering you and Model L to remain here in the command room during the battle." Aile began to protest, but Fleuve silenced her with a wave of his hand. "I know you want to go out and fight, and not having you on the battlefield is definitely a loss, but I think you'll be more effective in here helping to plan our strategy than out there chopping up an extra dozen mavericks. This will also allow you to act as a reserve, so we can deploy you to the areas where you're needed most."

"I agree, that sounds like an excellent idea," Model L said happily. "Aile?"

Seeing that both her superior officer and her biometal were against her, the young Guardian girl gave a resigned sigh. "Fine." She broke her Megamerge and sat Model L on the table, so she could freely hover around and point things out herself. "I guess I'll stick to being a translator for the time being." She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I bet Vent's having way more fun than this."

Model L laughed. "I don't doubt it. I'm sure that, one way or the other, he's got his hands full right about now."

"You think Thomas found out where they went and sent the rest of the army after them?" Aile asked, suddenly worried for her brother's safety.

Model L chuckled again. "Maybe, but...that wasn't quite what I had in mind."

* * *

"Got you!" Ashe heard Vent yell triumphantly as she felt her body collide with something.

"Unh..." Ashe grumbled, shaking her head to try and clear her senses. She looked up and saw Vent staring intently down at her, a worried expression on his face. "Vent? What happened? Last thing I remember is checking out some weird red thing, then something grabbed me..." Then she noticed she was sitting in Vent's arms, one supporting her knees and the other around her back. "And what am I doing here?"

"That 'weird red thing' was a mutated power cable," Zero said quietly as he landed silently beside them. "While you were investigating one part of it, another one snuck up behind you and latched onto your back and started draining power out of you and Model A. It looks like Model W's corruption has somehow given the ruins some kind of low-level self awareness, and like any maverick, they're hungry."

"It started dragging you off somewhere but Zero cut you loose," Vent filled in, motioning with his chin to where a severed piece of cable lay twitching on the ground nearby. "How do you feel? Are you okay?" His voice mirrored the concern on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just...a little...tired..." Ashe tried to assure them, but her failing voice gave her away.

"You're anything but fine," Prairie reprimanded her. "That thing probably took more energy out of you than you're willing to admit, you stubborn girl. Zero, she needs to rest."

Zero shook Prairie's head. "We can't afford to stop. We may have lost those Galleons for now but it won't take them long to figure out where we've gone. We have to keep pushing forward." He turned to Vent. "It looks like the only things trying to kill us in here are those maverick cables, and I should be able to handle those myself. Do you think you can carry her for a while?" Vent nodded affirmative. "Good, because we need to keep moving. Which way?"

"There's an underground river that keeps the area up ahead filled with water. The transerver's just a little ways beyond that."

"No, really...I'm...fine..." Ashe tried to protest, but she couldn't seem to raise her voice above a whisper.

"Don't be silly, you need to rest," Vent said gently. "Just relax for a little while. Model A, could you break your biolink for me? You add quit a bit of weight and I don't think she'll be needed you for the time being."

"Oh, sure," the biometal replied. Ashe's Megamerged armor vanished in a flash of light as the biometal appeared in Ashe's lap, then slid himself into the pouch he usually occupied on her belt.

"Not fair...ganging up on me..." Ashe grumbled, then lifted her dangling arm across her chest. "Fine, guess I could...go for a little nap...right about now..." Then, much to Vent's surprise, she snuggled her head up against his chest. "Pretty comfy here, anyway..."

Vent could feel the heat rising in his cheeks, while somewhere up ahead Prairie tried her hardest not to giggle.

* * *

The group continued on through the darkened hallways of the ruined Ragnarok, their path still illuminated by the ever-present green glow that permeated the entire underground. When Vent asked about what source might be, nobody seemed able to come up with a plausible answer. "Just another one of those things you're probably better off not knowing," Zero told him, and Vent wasn't about to argue. Other than that, the interior of the crashed space station was relatively unremarkable. The walls of the corridors they travelled through were made of an odd blue metal, which Model X informed him was a standard cobalt-titanium alloy used in orbital machinery back when the world was interested in such things.

The path was mostly downhill, leading them ever deeper into the depths of the earth. Vent was just glad that, unlike the last time he'd been here, there weren't any mavericks around to cause trouble. The strange red power cables really were the only threats they encountered, and they were easily handled by Zero and his Z-Saber. Whenever they passed through one of the larger rooms Vent could see tangles of them squirming off in the distance, though none of them seemed aware of the group as they moved through the area. Only the cables that lay across the path onward noticed them as they approached, and were quickly dispatched.

_I find it odd that I never saw any of these things when Model W was still here...maybe they were afraid of the other mavericks?_ Vent chuckled lightly. _What an odd idea, mavericks afraid of other mavericks. Then again, we don't even know if that's what these cables are to begin with. So many strange things in one place..._

Luckily the path was relatively easy to traverse, meaning he didn't have any problems carrying Ashe without jarring her too badly. Vent was actually kind of surprised that she'd managed to fall completely asleep, and so quickly, at that. He hoped the cable had done anything to her beyond an energy drain. After several tertiary scans both Model X and Prairie assured him that they couldn't detect anything wrong with the injured Hunter, but they also admitted that they wouldn't know for sure until the group could return to Cygnus Base for a complete analysis.

After twenty minutes or so of slowly working their way through the ancient ruins, Vent finally heard the familiar sound of rushing water. "We're here," he heard Zero say from where he'd been scouting from a short distance up ahead. Vent caught up to him and Prairie at the exit of the tunnel they'd been following, which opened up into a massive room full of clear water. The green light reflected off the top of the rippling lake and danced along the walls and ceiling, but Vent still couldn't tell where it was coming from. Beneath the surface he saw swarms of seaweed reaching up from the floor below, not quite reaching the surface.

Zero turned to Vent and said, "Now what?"

"Well, last time I was here I used Model L to swim across. I guess we'll just have to walk along the bottom this time. There's a drainage somewhere in the room though, so the current can get pretty strong in places. We'll have to be careful."

"The current's not the problem," Zero said, then pointed at the seaweed down below. "That is."

"What? It's just a bunch of plants, we can cut our way through them."

"Vent, think about that for a minute," Prairie said. "Why would there be seaweed growing in a mechanical ruin? Those things aren't seaweed, they're more of those weird cables."

"There's a lot of them too," Zero informed him. "If you look closely you can see the bottom of the room - it's blanketed with the things. I don't see too many of them near the surface of the water, so if we could somehow float across we should be able to get by without any problems. Unfortunately, while you might be able to disable your Megamerge and swim for it, Prairie's body is too heavy to stay afloat long enough to reach the other side of the room."

"Are you saying I'm too fat to swim?" Prairie seethed.

"Relax Prairie, it's not your fault your body isn't sixty percent water," Ashe quipped from Vent's arms, startling him.

"Ashe! How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to know that you guys can't get anything done around here with me," she replied, then nimbly swung her legs out of Vent's arms and stood up. She reached into her belt pouch and Megamerged in a flash of light. "Watch and learn!" The Hunter said with a wink, then jumped into the still water before them.

"Ashe, what are you-"

"A-Trans!" Ashe yelled again, then Chronoforce slowly floated to the surface. "Chronoferry, at your service. Please have your tickets ready when boarding."

"Good thinking Ashe," Prairie remarked, "but it looks like there's only room for one. Vent, you get on top and blast any cables that wander too close. Zero and I will hang off the side."

"Are you guys sure you can hang on that long?" Vent asked.

"I'd like to think I've got a pretty strong grip," Zero said dryly. "Don't worry, we'll be fine. Now let's go, every second we stand around here those Galleons are getting closer."

* * *

The first half of the ride across the lake was relatively uneventful, with Chronoforce's body easily floating past the majority of the maverick cables coming up from below. However, as they neared the middle of the lake, Ashe discovered a problem.

"Hey guys? We've got a pretty thick pile of cables coming up, I don't think I can get by them without getting too close. Any ideas?"

"I could blast a couple out of the way," Vent offered, but Zero shook his head.

"They're attracted by energy, remember? You start shooting charged plasma shots in here and we'll have the whole room chasing us in no time. Just try your best, Ashe, and we'll be ready in case the worst happens."

"All right then," the Hunter replied with a deep breath, "I guess it's time to prove how awesome I am."

Ashe scanned the approaching wall of cables for a second to try and find where the concentration of cables was thinnest, then set out for them at a much lower speed than she'd been traveling so far. She used Chronoforce's sonar to plot a course through the maze ahead, unsure of exactly how close she could get to one of the red obstacles before it would react to her. She tried to keep as much distance from them as possible, but it was hard to compensate for the movement of the cables as they swayed back and forth in the current, which was light in some places and heavy in others.

As she neared the end of the dense pocket of cables, Ashe saw one of them lying across the surface of the water. However, it looked like it was clear below the surface.

"Take a deep breath and hold on to something," she warned her passengers, then fired her dash turbines and dove. As she sped through the water she quickly calculated the best place to resurface and dashed forward again, but took a brief moment to glance down at the bottom of the lake, which she immediately regretted. She decided that she was much more comfortable cruising through the lake without knowing exactly how many cables were passing by beneath her, or how they milled about like gigantic red worms looking for a meal, or how the ones that reached up from the bottom resembled the fingers of some monstrous hand as it tried to pull her downward...

_How many times do you have to hear the phrase "don't look down" before you get it through your stupid head?_ She scolded herself just as she broke the surface again. She took a quick scan and was happy to discover that they were more or less in the clear until the far side of the room, which was just now becoming distinguishable in the distance. "Everyone still on board?" She asked politely, fully aware that she hadn't lost either of her companions.

"You might give us a bit more warning next time," Vent complained as he got back to his feet on her backside. "I almost got a couple lungs full of-" He cut off with a strangled yell as a cable wrapped around his neck and violently yanked him upward, dragging the startled Guardian towards where it hung from the ceiling above.

Before Vent had gotten more than foot away, Zero leapt from the water in a spin and sliced through the cable with a flash of his saber. Vent plunked back down on top of Ashe with a cough, Zero landing neatly beside him with his Z-Saber still brandished.

"Damnit," Vent cursed, "I was so busy worrying about the ones in the water I didn't see that one. Thanks Zero."

"Neither did I, until it was too late," Zero said to try and reassure him. "Just be glad it didn't latch onto you right away or you'd be passing out right about now."

"Uh, guys? I hate to ruin your male bonding moment, but we've got another problem," Ashe informed them. "I think they noticed us."

Zero and Vent both glanced over the sides and saw the massive red tangle of cables below was very quickly getting larger, and many of them were pointed directly at them. Several ripples in the surface of the water revealed even more of the monstrosities coming for them from other parts of the room.

"Why now, all of a sudden?" Prairie pondered aloud, carefully masking the panic in her voice. "There was only one of them!"

"It's probably the Z-Saber," Model X guessed. "Its highly concentrated energy is probably attracting them."

"Well that's just great," Ashe said sarcastically. "You picked one hell of a time to stop being perfect, Mr. Zero. So what the hell do we do now?!"

Zero's mind quickly leapt into action and, quite predictably, came up with the same solution it usually did.

"Well if the jig's up, no point in hiding anymore. Vent, you clear out the path ahead while I cover the back. Let's move it, Ashe! _GO!_"

"Through the middle, huh? I like it!" Ashe yelled far too enthusiastically for Vent's liking. "Hold onto your pants boys and girls, we're in for a bumpy ride!" Then she set her dash turbines to full power and shot forward.

As Chronoforce's sleek shape sped through the water like an arrow, Vent had his hands full keeping the path clear with his busters. The maverick cables weren't very hard to destroy - a few uncharged shots was enough to take out one, while a charged attack could slice through several at once - but it seemed like two more cables appeared for every one he destroyed. Behind him, Zero was equally busy fighting off the hordes of attackers pursuing them as they tried to latch on to anything they could get ahold of, including his Z-Saber. Several times he was almost disarmed as the severed remains of a cable nearly wrenched the weapon from his hands, which only made it even more difficult to fight off the ever-increasing swarm. The green saber flashed through the air at lightning speeds, each attack cutting down at least one of the red monstrosities.

"They're still coming!" Vent yelled as he blew through another cluster of red wires, only to see them replaced by twice as many. "We can't keep this up much longer!"

"We're almost there!" Zero yelled back. He extended his saber blade and swung sideways, the massive blade cleaving through all of the cables nearby, giving him a brief respite before more came rushing in. "Just hang on a little longer!"

"I've had enough of this crap!" Ashe yelled angrily from below. "I am NOT letting a bunch of stupid red wires beat me!" Suddenly Chronoforce's body began to glow as a low humming sound emanated from within, then there was a bright flash as Ashe unleashed a Time Bomb. "It's time to kick some ass! Hold on!"

Vent and Zero were forced to do just that as Ashe submerged and immediately swerved sideways, nimbly dodging around several incoming cables. While everything still seemed the same to the two passengers, Ashe's Time Bomb allowed her to dodge the incoming attackers with speed and agility that no human could ever hope to match, Megamerged or otherwise. Vent and Zero hung on for dear life as the enraged Hunter sped through the watery depths at full speed, shooting Ice Needles at anything that got in her way and then promptly smashing them to bits, or simply swatting the cables away with an underwater spin.

Seconds felt like minutes as the trio made their way across the final stretch of the lake, finally reaching the far side with only a short time left on the Time Bomb. Ashe rocketed to the surface at an angle, bursting out of the water with a roar of Chronoforce's turbines, and with a swarm of cables close behind them. Ashe abruptly dropped her Megamerge, startling her two passengers as they began to freefall to the solid ground waiting below.

"Payback time!" Ashe yelled, taking advantage of the final few seconds of her Time Bomb to charge her Giga Attack. An evil grin spread across her face as little red targeting cursors filled her vision, spelling out death for anything within her range. The small grey circle on her helmet split in two with a flash as she released all the power stored in Model A in one furious burst. Her twin plasma guns seemed to take on a life of their own as they sprayed the entire room with an endless stream of plasma bullets and Homing Lasers, ripping every cable within thirty feet to shreds in the space of only a few seconds.

Ashe stood panting at the edge of the lake for a few moments, taking the time to admire her handiwork before turning Vent and Zero. "Told you I was awesome," she said with a grin.

"Maybe, but there's still more of the stupid things on the way," Vent said, pointing over Ashe's shoulder at the water's surface, where they could all see the ripples and waves that indicated something was heading towards them. "We've got to keep moving. There's a door just up ahead that leads into the old Guardian research lab and the transerver, we should be safe in there."

Zero nodded his head in agreement, but it was Prairie who spoke. "The transerver and research facility were built by Sis and the research team so they could study Model W without moving it. The walls should be thick enough to keep those...things...from picking up our energy signatures. They should leave us alone after that."

"Look at the bright side," Ashe said as the three took off at top speed in the direction Vent indicated, "at least these things will slow down whoever it is that's chasing us down here."

"Maybe, but in that case your little fireworks show was a little counterproductive," Vent pointed out.

"Hmph. Well, it made me feel better," Ashe replied, completely unabashed. Vent simply rolled his eyes, then turned his attention back to the situation at hand.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I know I said this part would be really long. Well, it is. So long, in fact, that I broke it in two. It's taking a really long time to write, and I haven't actually had time to write a whole lot lately this past month or so, so I figured I'd put up this much at least. Blame Ar tonelico and Xenosaga. Besides, this part is longer than most of the ones in part 1, so it's not like I'm cheating you guys.

I know red squiggly cables of doom are kind of lame, but that's seriously what's in the game. I tried to make them menacing but there's only so much I can do. At least I got an excuse to make Ashe do her Giga Attack, which always reminded me of the Freedom from Gundam Seed. Little red bleeps never sounded so satisfying. I originally added them because I thought this part was going to be too short and needed to beef it up, then it started getting really long and I thought I might cut them out since the whole scene is kind of lame, but then decided I'd leave them in so I could do this half-update thing. I know that sounds kind of complicated, but it's only due to the number of commas I used, I swear.

I experimented a little in this part again. Most of the settings in this fic have been stuff taken from the game, so I haven't really needed to go to great lengths to describe them. I decided I needed some practice at that, so I decided I wanted to describe Area M, because in my opinion it's one of the coolest looking areas in a Megaman game. I think I did a pretty good job, considering how weird everything in the place is, and hopefully you agree. The Cyberspace-y areas are still to come.

Doomsday Machine is the music that plays in Area M/N of Megaman ZX. Incredibly fitting, I should think. I love the song, too. The next update is also going to be called "Doomsday Machine", since in my document it's going to all be the same part, it'll just say "Part 18b" on it. Man, this is going to completely kill my bookkeeping system...oh well.

Probably going to be a while before another update. If you're liking this story so far (and if you're reading this far in, I'm hoping that means you do) I might hazard to suggest Story Alert, since I don't really have much of a schedule going here anymore.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go listen to the Ar tonelico Hymmnos CDs another five times or so before I go to bed. Ciao!

**Canonical Note:**

Assuming the Zero series happens in the late 2190's to early 2200's, being born in 2192 would put Prairie's age at anywhere from 5-15 during the Zero games. Since you never actually find out when or where she's from, and she doesn't age since she's a reploid, I figure it's as good a guess as any. Feel free to complain, I'm not going to argue with you. It's not even really important.


	19. Part 18b: Doomsday Machine

"Can we get the Guardian Base into the air to help take out some of those air transports?" Fleuve asked, carefully studying the map in front of him to try and devise an effective strategy.

"No, it would take at least an hour to get the reactor booted back up, and even then we didn't have time to complete the repairs," one of the operators replied. "In fact, it's likely we'd lose it for good if it were to be exposed to any more enemy fire."

"Damn!" Model L cursed loudly. "Each of those transports has anywhere from fifty to a hundred mechaniloids and mavericks inside. If we could take out even one of them before it unloads its troops it'd go a long way towards improving our odds."

"Couldn't we just fire from the ground?" Aile asked from the other side of the room, where she'd overheard the entire conversation. "Plug it into Cygnus's reactor or something? They all use the same kind of energy, don't they?"

"Hmm...I don't know. Someone get Silure on the line."

As soon as Aile made the request another of the operators tapped a few keys, then suddenly Silure's bearded face showed up on one of the big monitors that filled the walls. "Hey little man, whaddya need? Kinda busy down here at the moment."

Model L didn't waste any time getting to the point. "How fast can you hook up the _Sword of Hope_ to Cygnus's reactor and get it ready to fire?" Aile once again conveyed the message.

Silure stared blankly between Aile and her biometal for a few moments as he tried to figure out what exactly was going on, only to decide it didn't really matter - what they were asking was insane either way. However, after a few moments of head-scratching, he began to work out the details in his head. "I'm not really sure, never really thought about it. Hmm...with enough hands I could probably get it done in ten minutes or so, but you'd only get enough power for about ten percent output. I'd need more time to set up the distribution systems and find more high-temp cabling, not to mention that I'd have to find the proper connecting gears and adjust the input mechanism to compensate for the difference in energy concentration due to the impurities in the reactor core, and then..."

"Tell him to shut up before he talks our ears off," Model L said impatiently. For once Aile was glad that nobody else could hear her. "Ask if ten percent is enough power to shoot down a Legion Hawkeye transport."

Aile politely interrupted Silure's rambling to ask Model L's question. "Those hunks of junk? You'd need more than one shot, but yeah, you could do it," the mechanic replied.

"Then take whoever you need to get it done and let me know when it's ready," Fleuve said. Silure nodded and gave a brief salute, then his face disappeared from the monitor again.

"Five minutes until estimated first contact," an operator said from the the opposite side of the room.

"Will the transports still be loaded by then?" Fleuve inquired.

"Maybe, maybe not, depends how fast Model H wants to get things over with. Either way, we can at least use the _Sword_ to scare off the other airships." The biometal chuckled nervously. "Honestly, I hadn't quite figured out how we were going to deal with them yet. Good job, Aile."

"Just trying to help," the girl replied with a good-natured smile, then told Fleuve what Model L had just said.

Model L returned to examining the map of the terrain surrounding the base. The Guardians had proved to be well-trained soldiers, getting their defensive positions set up in what Model L thought of as record time. There were now several gun towers, barricades, and choke-points set up between the Cygnus Base and the approaching wave of little red dots.

"What do we have in terms of long-range firepower?" The biometal asked a nearby operator. Sometimes she forgot that nobody could hear her, so Aile asked the question again.

"Depends on your definition of 'long range' and 'firepower'," the short-haired brunette replied. "We've got one bank of Valiant cannons that could probably fire a little over a kilometer if they had the right trajectory."

"Do they make big explosions?"

Aile shot a skewed glance at her biometal, but relayed the question just the same. Also confused, the operator nodded her head slowly. "I guess so, yeah."

"Good, that's all we need. Our main advantage here is that our opponents are stupid and mindless. If you present them with an obstacle, they'll find the most effective method of getting past it every single time, whether it's a good one or not.

"Tell those cannons to bombard these two areas." Model L hovered over two sections of the map close to the front lines. "I don't care if they kill anything, though that would be a bonus. Just make sure they don't hit this spot here. Those mavericks are stupid enough that they'll walk right through the path of least resistance, taking them right between these two hills.

"Now all we need is a couple of squads to set up a crossfire on the other side of the hills...have squads A and D move in, they're closest. Have squad P cover that area instead, the offensive should be relatively light considering the bottleneck we're making. Tell them to be on the lookout for a flanking counterattack, but I've never met a maverick that was smart enough to think of something like that."

Aile had her hands full translating everything Model l was saying to the rest of the Guardian command forces, but she couldn't help but smile as she watched Model L issue orders and formulate strategies like she'd been doing it her whole life. She'd never asked her biometal what her previous life had been like beyond what she'd learned after the fight with Aeolus, but it was obvious this was a familiar situation to her. Aile had heard Zero make reference to her biometal as one of the four Neo Arcadian Generals, and a general was exactly what she sounded like right now. Just listening to Model L's confidence voice and decisive tone affected the morale of everyone in the room, and it made Aile feel that maybe they had a chance at winning after all, despite the terrible odds they faced.

_She almost sounds like she's enjoying herself,_ Aile remarked to herelf as Model L yelled at one of the operators for taking too long with a status report, which she of course didn't hear. _It must have been hard for her to go from being a leader of armies to just a floating piece of metal for other people to take advantage of. It's like I'm seeing Model L in action for the first time, doing the thing she does best. She's a strong fighter to be sure, but it's in here, planning and strategizing, where her true strength lies. It's pretty amazing to be able to read the flow of battle well enough to be able to win without ever leaving the room. However..._

Aile made a fist with one hand as she thought of her last meeting with Aeolus. _You can't win them all that way. Sometimes you've got to go out there and do it yourself._ While she continued mindlessly droning out the instructions Model L was giving her, she was also mentally reviewing all of the lessons Zero had taught her the previous day. Aile had a feeling that no matter how this battle ended, she would have to confront Aeolus again before it was over. _And this time, I'm going to win._

* * *

"We just can't seem to win, can we?" Ashe yelled in frustration. "Ever since we entered this stupid cave everything's been going down the crapper."

"Hey, look at the bright side. We're still alive, aren't we? All we have to do now is beat up Omega."

"Shut up Vent, you're not helping."

"Would both of you be quiet and let me think?" Prairie yelled from the other side of the transerver, where she was busy fiddling around inside the control panel. After a few more moments of awkward silence she threw her hands up in frustration. "Dammit, I can't figure it out. I'm sure Silure could figure out what's broken and fix it inside of five minutes, but I just don't know enough about transervers to find the problem."

"Assuming we could even find the tools in this trash heap," Ashe scoffed, waving her arms at the surrounding area. "That Serpent guy you were talking about really did a number on this place. I'm surprised the transerver even worked the last time Vent was here."

"It was pretty much the only functioning thing here," Vent agreed sadly.

"Serpent probably used it to leave," Zero pointed out. "He couldn't very well break it after he was gone. The question is, what _did_ break it? Prairie?"

She shook her head. "There's some impact damage on the control panel casing, but I can't say for sure that someone was trying to break it on purpose. There's a lot of debris around here, something might have hit it during a tremor and knocked it around enough to break it." She kicked the machine in frustration. "If only I knew what was wrong with it, I might be able to give you a better answer. I'm sorry."

"So what's the plan for getting out of here then?" Vent asked. "We've got an army of mavericks and a rock slide waiting behind us. Do you think there's another way out of here?"

Prairie shrugged. "If there wasn't before, there could be one now. The caves in this mountain make the whole region seismically unstable. It's possible there's another route back to the surface back in that maze of tunnels somewhere."

"Or if not the surface, maybe just another way back to the biolock that will get us past the mavericks," Zero pondered. "But let's worry about one thing at a time. First we take care of Omega, then we worry about how we're going to get out of here."

"Because it's just that easy," Ashe remarked sarcastically under her breath.

The group traveled back through the ruins of the Guardian facility they'd entered after escaping the maverick cables, once again glancing over the ruined lab equipment that lay piled around the room. Most of the computers were smashed and broken, their data storage units either destroyed beyond recovery or simply removed altogether - likely Serpent covering his tracks. While Prairie had been trying to fix the transerver, Vent and Model X had taken a quick survey of the facility and determined that everything left in the lab was too damaged to be useful, which apparently included the transerver as well.

"This whole place has a pretty creepy vibe to it," Ashe said conversationally. "Like walking through a ghost town or something."

"This isn't like a ghost town," Zero replied. "Trust me, I've seen enough of them to know. But I understand what you're getting at."

"Yeah..." Prairie said absently as she looked down a hallway that branched off from the main room, the pervading darkness preventing her from seeing much farther than the entrance. Beside the doorway she saw a small name plate, covered in dust. On impulse Prairie walked over and brushed the dirt away, revealing the letters 'LQ'.

"Living quarters..." She said, seemingly lost in thought. "I wonder if..."

"Prairie? You okay?" Vent called over. He and Ashe had almost left the room before they'd noticed Prairie was no longer with them.

"Yeah, I'm...I'm fine," she responded vaguely, then dashed through the door, saying, "Wait here, I'll be right back."

"Be right back? Where are you going?" Ashe started to go after her, but Vent grabbed her gently by the arm.

"This is the lab where Prairie's sister was murdered," he said quietly. "Let's give her a few minutes alone, okay?"

Struck silent for the first time since Vent had met her, Ashe simply nodded.

* * *

"Prairie, what's wrong?" Zero asked as he was helplessly carried down the dark hallway. "You've obviously worked up over something."

"I never actually got the chance to come down here after the accident because of the biolock," Prairie said as she looked at the room numbers above the doors that lined both sides of the hall. "Even after Vent and Aile removed the lock, there wasn't any time to send a recon team down to investigate further. Sis had her own room down here somewhere, and I...I wanted to take a look."

"Prairie, from the look of things there's dozens of rooms in this place, and any one of them could be Ciel's room. It might even be one of the caved-in ones. We don't have time to-"

"Here it is." Prairie stopped in front of the fourth door on the right. "In the first letter she sent me, Sis laughed about how she somehow got the exact same room number that she'd always had in the Resistance Base." She pointed to the small sign above the door. "Room one hundred four." She pushed on the sliding doorway to see if it would open on its own, but as expected, the door didn't work. She made the Z-Saber appear in her hand - a trick which had required a significant amount of practice to learn - and quickly cut a hole through the thin sheet of steel, then stepped inside.

The green glow of the Z-Saber illuminated the tiny room from top to bottom, revealing a number of indentations and cracks in all four walls, as though something heavy had slammed into them repeatedly. In one corner was an old, dusty mattress, its insides violently torn out and thrown around the room like a stuffed toy. Across the top of the ruined bed was a set of smashed metal shelves, with a two-foot-square metal worktable piled on top of that. However, most of the room was taken up by a large desk and computer terminal in the opposite corner. All of the drawers had been pulled out and their contents removed, but several small objects remained strewn across the desktop, including a strange cylindrical device that Zero couldn't identify.

"So, this is the last place Sis..." She took a moment to look over the entire room, then slowly approached the desk. As they approached, Zero noticed a large dark stain covering the top, as well as spread across the floor below. He was sure that if they'd had proper light, it would have been a dark reddish-brown. He briefly held the futile hope that Prairie might not make the connection he just had, but that was quickly swept away as she let out a strangled gasp, her hand instinctively covering her mouth.

"Prairie, you don't have to..."

"I'm fine," Prairie replied shakily, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "I came to terms with this a long time ago. It's just that...it looks like she was just sitting in here working when Serpent came up behind her and...I always pictured her having a more dignified end than just being..." Her voice finally broke as she tried to keep her feelings under control.

"I'm sure Ciel spat in his face until the very end," Zero said, trying to reassure his distraught companion. "There's no way she'd go without a fight. I'm sure she would have made both you and I proud of her."

"You're probably right," Prairie said as she rubbed her eyes with one hand, refusing to let herself get teary-eyed over something she'd already known had happened years ago. "It doesn't matter either way, the end result is still the same." Although Zero heard the words come out of Prairie's mouth, he knew she didn't really believe them.

Prairie started picking through the things on the desktop, including a broken datapad, several different kinds of tools, a broken visor-display, an empty cup, and some broken dishes. There was also a small wooden picture frame lying face down amidst the chaos.

"Sis was always kind of old-fashioned," Prairie remarked as she too saw the frame. "Not many people keep wooden frames with printed pictures around anymore." She picked up the frame and flipped it over. Inside was a picture of Ciel kneeling on a dirty metal floor, her mouth split in a happy, carefree smile as she held a tiny Alouette in her arms, who clutched her doll nervously over her face.

"I remember that," Prairie said after staring at the photo for a time. "That was right after we escaped Neo Arcadia, in the Resistance Base. I was so scared to be alone that I wouldn't let her leave, so she called Cerveau in to take that photo - he always had all sorts of weird gadgets like print cameras lying around. Then she gave it to me and said, 'if you get lonely, just take that out and remember I'll always be with you.' I carried it around in the pocket of my dress for so long, I forgot I even had it...I guess Sis kept it when she got rid of my old body."

"So she'd always have a reminder of who you were. I'll bet Ciel got lonely too, sometimes, though she probably never admitted it."

"Yeah..." Prairie agreed, then went silent again for a few moments. "She was the last person alive who knew the little girl named Alouette. When she died, it was like...that part of me went with her, forgotten to the world, like it never existed."

"There are a lot of great people whose names and lives have been forgotten by the world," Zero said quietly, "but that doesn't make what they did any less meaningful. Your life is validated by what you do with it, not by what everyone remembers about it. Ciel told me on several occasions that she wouldn't know what to do without you. She had a tough lot in life, but when she spent time with you it was like none of that mattered, even if just for a little while."

"She tell you that too?"

"She didn't have to. Can't you tell just by looking at that photo? Nobody else could ever make her smile like that."

"Oh, I can think of at least one person..." Prairie said with a mischievous smirk, which Zero good-naturedly ignored.

"What's that thing on the corner of the desk?" Zero asked, referring to the cylindrical object he couldn't identify.

"That's a small portable transender. It's like a miniature transerver, but it can't receive signals, only send them. You don't see too many of them since they're new technology and still kind of bulky to transport. They're also pretty limited in range and network availability. This model probably couldn't send anything much farther than Innerpeace." She tapped a few keys on the device and got no response, as she expected. "It's not getting any power, and it looks like the destination input keypad is broken. Even if we could get it working it wouldn't be of any use to us." A curious look spread across her face. "It's odd, though. Sis never mentioned she had one of these. I wonder what she was using it for...?"

Zero gave Prairie a few more moments to stare at the objects on the desk before he spoke again. "We should get moving, Vent and Ashe are probably wondering what we're up to."

"You're right," Prairie agreed with a sigh. She turned to leave, then picked up the picture frame again. She smashed it open on the side of the desk, pulled the picture out, then smiled as she looked at it one more time before sliding it into one of her jacket's inside pockets. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind," she remarked before heading back out the door.

She arrived back at the lab's main area to find Vent and Ashe on opposite sides of the room, a silent tension filling the air between them. "What's with you two?"

"Prairie!" Vent exclaimed, whirling around. "You're back! Wh-what do you mean, what's with us?"

"It's like there's a moratorium on speaking in here." She narrowed her eyes as she looked back and forth between the two. "You didn't get in a fight, did you?"

"No, there's just nothing to talk about," Ashe replied casually with a flick of her hand. "Come on, let's get going. I don't like it in here, it's creepy. Which way?"

"There should be an exit down that corridor that leads deeper into the ruins," Prairie said, pointing off to their left. "Beyond that, I'm not sure."

"Something tells me we'll know when we start getting close," Zero said. "Omega has an unmistakable way of making his presence known. Just keep your eyes open for anything that looks strange."

"This whole place reeks of 'strange'," Ashe remarked dryly, then went on to lead the way. "If I find any giant black vortexes of death, I'll be sure to let you know."

* * *

The path through the ruins got increasingly treacherous as the group progressed, leading them through partially-collapsed hallways and tunnels of raw stone where the ruins had been ripped apart by underground tremors that would have barely been felt on the surface. Luckily there were none of the menacing red cables beyond what they had already seen, but neither was there much light. Whatever was causing the ever-present green-tinged light in previous areas wasn't present in the lower sections, leaving Vent and Prairie to stumble their way through the darkness of the corridors illuminated only by the glow of Prairie's Z-Saber, which didn't reach more than a few feet. Ashe, on the other hand, was taking every opportunity to remind them how incredibly useful and awesome it was to be Siarnaq at times like these.

"SEE? YOU GUYS WOULD HAVE BEEN TOTALLY SCREWED IF YOU HADN'T BROUGHT ME ALONG," she bragged for at least the dozenth time since leaving the Guardian lab. "I'VE SAVED US FROM FALLING INTO LIKE A HUNDRED HOLES BY NOW. LIKE THAT ONE VENT IS ABOUT TO STEP INTO."

"That girl is really starting to get on my nerves," Prairie muttered quietly as she watched Vent feel his way around the hole in front of him.

"It's just her way of releasing tension," Zero replied quietly. "Something tells me she's starting to get a little claustrophobic down here, and I can't say I blame her. If talking makes her feel better, just let her do it. Better to be thinking about how you want to wring Ashe's neck than what might happen if the roof of this tunnel caves in on us."

"You're not helping any," Prairie groaned.

"THE REST OF THIS CORRIDOR IS IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE, YOU GUYS SHOULD BE OKAY ON YOUR OWN," Ashe yelled from a short distance up ahead. "I'M GOING TO GO SCOUT AHEAD A LITTLE BIT, I'LL BE RIGHT BACK."

"Don't go too far!" Prairie yelled after her, but got no response. "That girl can be so irritating sometimes."

"You just aren't used to having someone around that you aren't the boss of," Vent chided her. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. This place is too dead to be dangerous."

"Something doesn't need to be alive to be dangerous," warned Zero. "I can't believe Ciel actually came down here on her own to find Omega. This isn't exactly the easiest terrain to get through."

Prairie chuckled. "Ciel got a little more...'adventurous' than you might remember after she got her reploid body. Things would have to be a lot worse than this to keep her from sating her curiosity about something. She never did lose her thirst for knowledge, right up until the very end..."

They had just rounded the next corner of the hallway and entered into another corridor when Ashe's voice echoed down from the other end. "HEY GUYS, I CAN SEE A LIGHT COMING FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NEXT ROOM. I'M GOING TO GO CHECK IT OUT."

"That has to be the most annoying voice in existence," Prairie muttered. "Come on, let's catch up before she gets herself killed staring at pretty lights."

They stumbled their way through the darkness of the hallway, successfully reaching the opposite end without incident after only a few moments as they turned the bend the hall opened up into a large chamber at least twenty feet high and forty feet deep. Several pieces of the ceiling had fallen down and created low-lying barriers, as well as creating several piles of rock and metal debris. Prairie saw the glow Ashe had mentioned coming from an entryway in the opposing wall, but there was no sign of the girl anywhere.

"Ashe, you out there?" Vent called out. "What do you see?" There was no response. "Ashe?"

"I told you she'd get herself into trouble," Prairie said exasperatedly. "Let's go, Vent."

They carefully worked their way across the room towards the glowing doorway, preparing for the worst as they came around the corner. Instead, inside all they saw was Ashe staring blankly off into a massive, fully-illuminated cavern.

"Ashe!" Vent yelled.

"Oh, hey guys," she said absently, oblivious of the fact that her friends had been calling her. "I thought I was just kidding, but guess what?" She pointed a finger at something in front of her. "I found a giant black vortex of death."

"What?" Prairie rushed forward to stand beside Ashe, then gasped at the sight that surrounded her on all sides.

What Prairie had taken to be a large cavern was in fact not even a cavern at all. The ground on which she and Ashe stood was made of the a strange green metal that Prairie had never seen before. There were no walls; they seemed to have broken apart into tiny pieces and were somehow floating in space a short distance away, with no solid ground below them to speak of. Farther ahead she could see a few places where the walls were still intact, revealing fragments of strange machinery and strange symbols that she didn't understand. The ground itself was still solid, but Prairie couldn't help but notice that after the foot of steel that comprised it ended, there was only open air below - the path seemed to be magically suspended in midair.

Turning to look at what Ashe was staring at, she saw something that defied all logical explanation. Off in the distance - how far, she couldn't tell, but it was far enough that there was no way it should have been able to exist underneath a mountain - small glowing orbs of...something...floated through a vast expanse of empty space and collided with a large, black, floating mass. Pieces of debris from all around the space also swirled slowly through the air, spiraling towards the strange black object like they were somehow being drawn in. Although it seemed to absorb all light directed at it, the edges of the sphere pulsed with a bright white light, giving it an appearance that reminded Prairie of a solar eclipse. All of the space surrounding what remained of the hallway was tinged an odd shade of blue, which became more intense the farther away from the black orb Prairie looked.

"What the hell is it?" Vent said as his mouth hung wide open, putting voice to what everyone was thinking.

"That's Cyberspace," Zero said. "It isn't supposed to exist in the physical world, so you aren't supposed to be able to see it with your eyes. It doesn't really look like that, your brain is just trying to give some visual representation to the data your eyes are giving it, even if it doesn't make any physical sense."

"Sort of like a dream," Prairie said absently as she continued to gaze outward. "While you're asleep your brain tries to connect pieces of information its absorbed, but it doesn't always obey the laws of reality when it does so."

"Right. Your brain doesn't understand what it's seeing, so it imposes an image on it to make sense of it as best it can. That doesn't mean it isn't a little...disorienting."

"Disorienting?" Ashe said incredulously. "That's hardly the word I'd use. This is going to seriously mess with my head for the rest of my life. How does this place even exist down here? Why isn't the mountain collapsing on top of that big black thing? And what the hell is that, anyway? And why are are those other little things flying into it?"

"I have no idea," Zero replied. "I'm not exactly an expert on this stuff either, I've just had a bit more experience with it than you. Your guess at most of this stuff is as good as mine. What I can tell you is that the real world still exists, which is why the mountain hasn't collapsed on top of us. We just can't see it."

"Yeah, but as a rule, I don't think big black voids are a good thing," Vent remarked.

"While I'm inclined to agree, I think we have more pressing matters to be concerned with," Model X interrupted. "If I'm not mistaken, this path appears to be a dead end."

Prairie was the first to tear her eyes away from the extraordinary scenery long enough to glance at the path ahead. Farther down what had previously been a Ragnarok corridor, the floor simply stopped ended with a sudden drop into empty space. Farther on she could see a solidly closed doorway set into the wall opposite them, likely where the corridor had originally lead. "It looks like the rest of the path just...vanished. Do you think it has something to do with Cyberspace?"

"Maybe..." Zero trailed off. "You said Ciel took 'preventive measures' to keep Omega trapped down here. Could this be one of them?"

"I'll be the first to admit that Sis could do some pretty amazing things, but I don't think making holes in the fabric of reality was one of them."

"Maybe this wasn't Cyberspace when she was last down here," Model X pointed out. "Judging by the look of the terrain outside this room, there should be a massive chasm going through this area. It's more likely that the missing path is due to the fact that it doesn't exist in the physical world."

"Assuming Zero's right about the physical world and Cyberspace existing at the same time, that sounds like a pretty good guess to me," Vent said. "The more important question is, how are we going to cross it?"

"Hey guys, come over here a sec. I think I found something," Ashe yelled. Prairie and Vent went over to where she stood at the entrance of the room, looking at an illuminated wall terminal. None of them had noticed it on their way in, having been preoccupied with the appearance of Cyberspace. "I started fiddling around on this panel and some parts of the interface looked kinda weird, so I checked them out. Here, take a look." She stepped out of the way as Prairie leaned over the controls.

"They look weird because they aren't part of the original program," Prairie said after investigating the panel for a few moments. "It looks like someone added controls to extend a bridge in the next room. I'll bet it was Sis trying to keep Omega trapped on the other side of the chasm."

"Omega wouldn't let something like a big hole keep him from getting out, and Ciel would have known it," Zero said grimly.

"No, but it's doing a pretty good job of keeping us from getting in," Vent pointed out. "Prairie, can you extend the bridge?"

"Yes, but it's not the bridge that's a problem. The door on the opposite side is an airlock from the Ragnarok and requires a constant input from this terminal in order to stay open - you basically have to hold down this button here." She looked up from the console, glancing briefly between Vent and Ashe. "Someone's going to have to stay here and hold the door open."

"We still haven't found the biolock that Ciel told you she set up," Zero said. "That means I need Vent to come with me."

"But we can't leave Ashe here by herself!" The young Guardian protested. "Did you forget we're still being chased by a horde of Thomas's mavericks? They could catch up to us any time now. And how can you be sure I'm the one you need to open the biolock, anyway?"

"Because you're the only choice that makes sense." _Ciel would know that, barring myself, a Mega Man with the power of Model X would be the only person who could stand a chance of defeating Omega._ "I didn't forget about the mavericks, but there's nothing we can do about them right now. After we find the biolock you can come back here and wait with Ashe, but right now I need you to come with me. Judging by the amount of Cyberspace corruption I'd guess we're getting pretty close to our destination. You won't be gone long."

"Relax, take your time," Ashe replied, casually waving her arms. "Model A and I can handle things here while you boys go have your fun. Now hurry up and get going. Despite how cool this place looks, it still gives me the creeps."

"Ashe, you're not claustrophobic, are you?" Model X asked abruptly, startling the poor Hunter girl, who sputtered a few times in surprise before she managed to form a coherent reply.

"Of course not! I make a living going through old ruins looking for useful junk, how could I be afraid of small places? I just...don't like them is all." She fidgeted uncomfortably as she glanced absently around the little corridor.

Prairie raised a skeptical eyebrow, but said nothing. "Okay, I'm extending the bridge. Ashe, come hold this button here." She pushed a button and they all heard a very audible click, following by a the whirring sound of machinery grinding into action nearby. Looking out into the Cyberspace-filled room, they could see a bridge extending itself across the bottomless chasm towards the rest of the path on the other side. Shortly afterward the door on the far slid open, but all they could see from here was a bend in the hallway.

"Let's go!" Prairie said as she took off down the hall, Vent trailing afterward. However, before they reached the edge of the bridge it abruptly vanished from sight.

"Whoa!" Vent yelled as he skidded to a halt before he went flying out into Cyberspace. "Where'd the bridge go?"

"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the bridge isn't in Cyberspace," Model X replied thoughtfully.

"Why not?"

"It likely has something to do with the fact that it's not a fixed structure, it moves around. If the bridge were extended for a prolonged period of time I assume it would start to appear."

"He's right, look." Zero pointed at the place the bridge was supposed to be, where Vent could see small pieces of it beginning to fade into view. Moments later some of them disappeared, only to have others appear in different places shortly afterward. "Too bad we don't have time to sit around and wait for it. We'll have to jump across."

"Uh...are you sure that's a good idea?" Vent said nervously. "How are we supposed to jump across when the bridge randomly disappears?"

"It's not random, there's a pattern," Prairie told him. "Just watch it carefully for a few seconds and you'll see it. Look, I'll go first and you can follow after me."

Vent turned to Ashe for support, but the girl simply smiled and waved. "Good luck!"

With a sigh, Vent resigned himself to doing the impossible. He studied Prairie's movements closely, then followed after her. Several times during the crossing he wished he still had Model H as he narrowly escaped falling to his death, but after what seemed like forever he successfully made it across the chasm of nothingness and into the waiting doorway.

"I never want to do that again," Vent said emphatically.

"Only one way back," Zero remarked as Prairie turned the bend of the hallway and continued heading deeper into the ruins, leaving Vent to trail behind with a tortured groan.

It was only moments later that the pair turned a corner and found themselves standing in front of what Vent assumed was supposed to be an impressive-looking door, but the years had not been kind to it. Several panels of the surrounding wall had fallen loose, exposing the wires and machinery behind them to the dusty air. However, the door itself still seemed to be in good condition. Several lights ringed the door, indicating the lock was still active. Inset into the wall nearby, a lone monitor that Vent assumed was connected to the door controls flickered weakly.

"Here we are," Prairie said with a note of finality, "this is the biolock. Omega is on the other side of this door. Model X, if you don't mind?"

"One moment." The biometal broke his link with Vent and hovered over to the monitor. After a few moments of silence, messages started zipping across the screen, followed shortly after by a hiss as the pressure seal of the biolock disengaged. "It appears Zero was correct, it was my password that was required. The door should now be open."

"Thanks," Zero said. "You two head back and keep Ashe company. Try and keep the door open for us. If we're not back in half an hour, assume the worst."

"All right, good luck...hey, what's that?" Vent pointed at the monitor, which was displaying a new message. Prairie bent over to read it just as a small panel beside the screen slid open, revealing some kind of device.

"Zero voiceprint detected. Successful biomatch required for data access." She glanced over at the strange device. "This must be a bioscanner. But what's this data access it's talking about...?" She tentatively reached out and put her hand inside the scanner. There was a brief green flash of light, followed by another message on the monitor. "Invalid biomatch. Successful biomatch required for data access."

"You think it's looking for Zero's biodata?" Vent guessed. "Well, if Model Z's biodata won't work, I guess it wants the real thing. Too bad your body's gone, I wonder what data that thing's got inside it." He shrugged. "Guess we'll never know."

"Yeah, that's too bad..." Zero said mysteriously, while Prairie shifted uncomfortably. "Well, let's go Prairie. Vent, you know what to do."

"Right." Prairie approached the biolock door, which slid open obediently before her. She was just about to pass through when she paused for a moment, then turned around and looked at Vent. "I don't know what the problem is between you and Ashe, and it's probably none of my business, so I'm not going to ask for details. But whatever it is, I expect you to have things worked out by the time we get back. That's an order." Then she was gone before Vent could manage to voice a response.

"But...I thought..." Vent stammered out, confused.

"Vent? Is there something wrong? You have been acting rather oddly around Ashe lately."

"Um, well..." Vent could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. He really didn't want to talk to Model X about this sort of thing. _But I already told Prairie about..._he shook his head to clear his muddled thoughts. "It's nothing," he said to his biometal, "let's go." Then he hurriedly headed back to the door, where the girl in question waited.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I actually finished this part a while ago, but just couldn't be bothered to post it. Sorry. Been a little busy.

For the first time since I started posting this thing, I've now posted every single word I've written so far. I've been taking a break from writing this summer, but I'm feeling like getting back into again now, so I should be able to get some more stuff written up soonish. I already know exactly what's going to happen, I just need to type it.

I didn't spend as much time editing this piece as I normally do, so I'll apologize ahead of time if there's a few mistakes in it.

The scene about Ciel was interesting. At some point I intend to write an entire fic about what happened when Serpent went berserk and Ciel hid the biometals from him, so I tried to make the appearance of her room reflect what I imagine happened. However, since I haven't actually written it yet, it was kind of hard. If I ever get around to writing that, you'll see what I mean.

Thanks to the person (whose name currently escapes me) who pointed out that Prairie does make a mention to Vent/Aile that she's a reploid in ZX. I'd forgotten about that. I wish I hadn't, as that was a very awkward fact to work into the story. If I'd known they already knew it I could have cut that out entirely and been happy. Regardless, I'm not going to bother going back to take it out now, so we'll just have to live with it.

The next part deals entirely with what happens back at the Guardian Base. Sorry, but the Omega fight is going to have to wait a little bit longer. Don't worry, in the end it's much more theatric this way. The next three parts all happen more or less simultaneously, which is a hard effect to achieve when each part is posted several months apart :\. It took a while for me to decide how to roganize the flow of events coming up, but I think I've got it good now. Anyway, stay tuned, the next few parts should definitely prove to be exciting, as well as contain a few twists - some of which you can probably see coming, and others which I guarantee you won't. ;)

And, as always, thanks to the people who take the time to review, and/or add to alerts/favorites. I'm kind of surprised at how many of those I get even when I haven't updated in almost a month. Thanks y'all!


	20. Part 19: Onslaught

**Censor's Warning:** There's some minor swearing in this chapter. Live with it or don't read it, your choice.

* * *

Part 19: Onslaught

"Squad G is reporting a heavy offensive on their lines, requesting reinforcements," an operator said.

"Who's the closest reserve unit?" Model L said, which Aile relayed.

"Reserve three is currently supporting squad E at point B-2. They're reporting fifty percent casualties."

"Tell them to send any injured back to base and then move to assist squad G. Have reserve two head over there as well as soon as squad A is back on its feet."

"Reserve two is reporting over 70% casualties, are you sure they'll be effective?" Fleuve asked worriedly.

"What?! How did the idiots manage to do that?" Model L spat. Aile decided not to translate that part. "No, they're almost completely useless now. Have them merge ranks with reserve three when they arrive, and put Hakomi in charge. I need that line secured before the troops coming off the transport up here reach us, because there's no way squad K is going to hold on their own. What's the status of the _Sword_?"

"Silure reports it'll have twenty-three percent firing capability in three minutes."

"Tell him to fire as soon as he's ready, I don't care what he hits. As soon as those transports and gunships realize they aren't invincible up there they'll be a lot more careful in their approach. It should give us a bit of a breather."

_I'm having trouble keeping up with what's going on right now, but Model L's already planning three moves ahead,_ Aile thought with amazement. Looking down at the digital map of the battlefield, she was constantly surprised at how well the Guardian forces were faring. They were easily outnumbered three to one, but so far they were somehow holding their own. It largely due to how well Model L was organizing them, but they were also proving to be much tougher in combat than Aile would have thought. A cliched saying about a cornered beast came to mind...

"Squad J is reporting a large number of forces approaching their position, they're requesting orders."

"What?!" Model L hovered over to the part of the table where squad J was stationed. "Already? Damn, I didn't think they'd be able to move that fast." There were a few moments of silence as she contemplated her next move. "All right, tell them to pull back to point C-3, and have squads K and P try and lend some cover fire. They shouldn't be too busy right now. Tell Jakob he's got thirty seconds to move his troops back before we start firing the Valiants, and to hold point C-3 until further orders."

"Squad A is also reporting a large offensive into their section," another operator informed them, a tinge of panic in her voice. "They're estimating approximately seventy enemy contacts."

"What?!" Model L hovered back across the table. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would he want to take that area? It's the farthest point from our perimeter..." Then Model L abruptly slammed into the tabletop. "Damn, I see what's he doing now," the biometal said angrily.

"Might I suggest moving squad C over for backup?" Fleuve said, having not heard Model L's remarks. "They can easily reach squad A in time, they're currently reporting all clear."

"Of course they are," Model L spat, "that's exactly what he wants us to do. As soon as we leave that area open, these forces up here" -she hovered a circle around a nearby group of red dots- "are going to rush through the gap while the ones pinning down squad A serve as a decoy." She turned to look at Aile. "It's all one big, elaborate ploy to make you and I come out so Aeolus and Model H can fight us."

"Are you serious?" Aile exclaimed dubiously. "Doesn't that seem a little excessive?"

"Yes, but it's the only explanation I can come up with. Model H already knows he's going to win this, if not with these troops then with the ones he brings next time. We don't hvae an unlimited number of forces, and he'll wear us down eventually. No, he's not worried about winning, he's just trying to give us no choice but to go out there and fight him ourselves. It also explains why we haven't seen him out there at all. He could probably wipe out an entire squad or two by himself with no problems, but instead he keeps letting us push him back."

"Well, what are we going to do, then?" Aile asked, aware that the rest of the room was staring at them expectantly.

Model L sighed. "The only thing worse than falling into a trap is falling into a trap that you already know is there. Tell squad B to go back up squad A. You and I will head out to cover the gap left by squad B."

"Why don't we just go help squad A?"

"Because I don't want anyone to get in the way."

* * *

"I thought you said you could drive a motorcycle?!" Model L screamed as Aile went careening over another small hill, nearly losing control of the borrowed vehicle as it flew haphazardly through the air.

"I can, but this isn't really driving as much as it is hanging on for dear life! Why do we have to go this fast?!"

"Because the whole point of taking a motorcycle was so that we could get in range of the mavericks before they blow us to pieces. Now stop complaining and drive in a straight line!"

Aile was about to point out the fact that it was Model L who was complaining, but was instead forced to tighten her death grip on the accelerator as the bike flew off the top of another small incline, landing with a heavy thunk on the ground much farther away than Aile would have thought was possible. She then had to scramble to regain control before she crashed into any of the small rocks and trees that dotted the landscape, cursing her biometal for talking her into this every step of the way.

They could hear the approach of the mavericks long before they could see them, echoes of explosions and gunfire echoing across the landscape as the battle raged across two kilometers of the hilly, rocky ground that surrounded Cygnus base. A small forest surrounded the base on all sides to hide it from sight, but it didn't really provide much cover for either an attacking or defending army. The battle was being fought out here on the plains, where the Guardian forces could use the hills and cliffs to their advantage.

As they topped another rise, Aile caught her first glimpse of the maverick forces she and Model L had come to destroy. It was one thing to hear you were going out to destroy one hundred and twenty mavericks all by yourself, and another to actually see one hundred and twenty mavericks marching around the corner in front of you. She'd scrapped hundreds of mavericks in her time, to be sure, but not usually all at the same time.

"Oh good, they haven't left the valley," Model L remarked as she watched the approaching horde. "Aile, take us up that side of the hill there. We'll come at them from above."

"That's a pretty crazy idea, you know," Aile said, then smiled. "I think I like it."

"Just try and land the bike on something big, preferably while we're not on it. That'll save us from having to try and blow it up later."

"Sounds like a plan."

The front line of mavericks fired a few shots at Aile as she sped up the side of the hill, but they all flew wide of their target. A few seconds later the bike went flying over the edge of the cliff at the top. Aile took a quick survey of the mavericks lined up below her and decided to drop the bike on top of a large, mean-looking walker with far more guns than she felt comfortable being aimed at her. She altered her descent with a quick blast from her dash turbines, then pushed off the bike into a backflip, sending it crashing into the large mech below before the front lines could report she was coming.

Knowing that soon all of the mavericks would open fire and turn her into something resembling swiss cheese, Aile charged her trident - it seemed to go a lot faster than she remembered - and slammed into the ground as hard as she could, combining the speed of her fall with the strength of her arms to create a thunderous shockwave as she touched down. The ring of mavericks closest to her were blown to scrap, while those farther away were knocked off their feet. She then released her stored power to create a massive wall of snow and ice around her, over ten feet high and several feet thick.

The mavericks outside quickly retaliated, cutting and blasting their way through the barrier with plasma weapons. The snow and ice hissed as the heat of the weapons melted it, creating a light fog that spread through the narrow valley as pieces of the barrier fell to the ground, melted, and evaporated.

When the mavericks had finally blown their way to the center of the frozen structure Aile neatly sliced all of the nearby saber-wielding drones in two with one powerful, horizontal swipe, then fired her dash turbines and rocketed straight into the air before she was riddled with bullets. She rocketed forward and crashed straight into the closest group of rifle-wielding Galleons, bodily tackling one of them and rolling along the ground with it. As she came up she tossed the Galleon into another one with such force that they both exploded, knocking down several others nearby.

Her element of surprise now gone, Aile used the low-hanging fog she'd created to her advantage as she ducked and wove through the maverick ranks, hacking them to pieces almost as fast as they blew themselves apart with friendly fire. The cold fog was obscuring their heat-based vision, and her blue armor combined with the low visibility in the fog made it hard to distinguish her from the Galleons she was tearing apart. Aile glanced up briefly to see a group of Galleons who had gotten smart and were climbing one side of the valley so they would have a clear shot at Aile from above. She spared one slash of her deadly dance to unleash an ice dragon towards the top of the cliff, which started a small landslide on impact, crushing the enterprising Galleons beneath several tons of rock.

"Weird," Aile thought aloud as she cleaved another pair of floating turrets apart, "I only meant to fire an Ice Needle out. Why didn't I have to charge up for that?"

"You must be getting better at controlling my power," Model L replied. "When I was in my own body I could fire the ice dragons without charging. Why don't you charge up and try doing this?"

All of a sudden, knowledge flashed through Aile's brain and she knew how to use Model L's power in a way she hadn't thought of before. "Whoa, what was that?" She make a short hop backward to avoid the incoming blasts from a hovering turret, responding with a few Ice Needles to destroy the offending machine as well as another one nearby.

"Consider it a crash course on using my bioenergy to perform a new technique. It's hard to describe these things in words so I figured just showing you mentally would be faster. Why don't you try it out, it looks like you could use a breather right about now."

"All right then." Aile took to the air while she charged, using her dash turbines to zip through the air in short bursts and whirling her trident around to deflect any shots that still managed to get close. After a few seconds she landed with her back to the valley wall and began spinning her trident in circles in front of herself, just as the knowledge in her head told her to. Drawing on her stored energy, she channeled it through her palms and into the tip of the whirling trident, deflecting plasma bullets at the same time. As the energy built up in the tips it began to leave a white trail in the air, which lengthened as she sent more and more energy into the weapon until it looked like there was a solid white circle in the air in front of Aile.

She was mildly surprised when it actually worked and a huge white beam of energy suddenly shot out from the circle of power, extending slowly outward toward the horde of mavericks in front of her. Anything the beam touched immediately froze over, resulting in many Gelleons losing arms and legs as they instantly froze and broke off as the mechaniloids moved forward, but their frozen appendages did not. Any maverick that was hit head-on by the beam was completely frozen and unable to move, completely incapacitated, while the beam simply washed over them and hit the next maverick in line.

While the attack was incredibly effective, it was also draining Model L's power at an alarming rate. Aile quickly turned the beam to the left, sending a wave of frozen death arcing through a large slice of the maverick forces. When she couldn't hold the beam any longer she stopped spinning her trident, then took a moment to admire her handiwork as the tail end of the beam worked its way through the maverick lines. Galleons everywhere were trapped in any variety of poses, sometimes all in one piece, other times lying about in many different ones. Many of them had fallen over, completely off-balance, and shattered when they hit the ground, sometimes taking others with them.

"It's actually kind of pretty, in a rather morbid sort of way," Aile remarked to herself, briefly admiring the way the sun sparkled off of the ice sculptures before the other half of the maverick army decided to resume firing.

"Indeed. I always thought my methods of mass destruction were much prettier than Fefnir's."

Sparing a brief thought for how absurd that statement was, Aile quickly dashed into the middle of the frozen maverick forest for cover. She wondered for a moment whether the other mavericks would have mercy on their frozen comrades, but didn't have to think on it long as she heard the sound of shattering ice and ripping metal a short distance away.

"They really are a bunch of merciless bastards, aren't they?" Aile said aloud, not really expecting a response, though Model L gave her one anyway.

"They do as they're ordered. Someone ordered them to kill you, and that's what they're going to do, even if they rip apart their own army to do it. It's not like they can't spare the troops, after all."

"It just seems like such a waste of manpower."

"Not going to argue with that. Try and stay low for a minute or two while I recharge, that beam took up a lot of power."

"All right."

Rather than shatter the frozen maverick soldiers as she ran by, Aile instead used them for cover as plasma fire and explosive shells rained down around her. Every so often she jumped up and fire a few Ice Needles into the groups of Galleons and other mechaniloids to make sure they knew where she was, but otherwise she conserved her energy and let the mavericks do the destructive work for her.

Just as she was beginning to run out of mechaniloid icicles to hide behind and worry about where she was going to hide next, a massive shadow crept over the battlefield. Aile looked up and saw a large transport ship hovering several hundred feet in the air above her.

"This could be trouble," Aile said as the bottom hangar of the ship opened, allowing a very large mechaniloid to plummet to the ground below. A few Galleons were crushed beneath its massive treads as it landed on them, creating a large hole in the hard-packed ground as it did so.

"Never thought I'd see the day when it was raining Crushpactors," Model L remarked to herself, naming the familiar mechaniloid. "Oh well, not like we've never dealt with one of those before."

"Yeah, but I don't think it's done dropping those things yet." The airship's hangar doors were still open, and inside she could see another Crushpactor lining up to be deployed. "If it drops too many more of those things, things could get ugly."

If it became too much for her to handle, Aile knew she could easily make her escape from the battlefield. However, that would leave the Crushpactors to roam about the field ambushing their squads. Even worse, Aile was currently the only defense deployed in this region; if she pulled back, those Crushpactors could head straight for Cygnus base. Their massive spiked wheels and incredible power would have no problems turning the perimeter defenses of the base into scrap.

She checked the level of biometal energy she'd recovered, made a few quick calculations, and formulated a plan while the first Crushpactor crawled its way out of the hole its landing had created. As she dashed forward to attack she both heard and felt the impact of another Crushpactor somewhere behind her.

She closed quickly on her target, knowing that their main weaknesses were their sluggish movements and low maneuverability. If she gave the Crushpactor the opportunity to gain some momentum to charge, things could become messy very quickly. From previous experience she knew that Crushpactors were very durable machines that could take a lot of punishment before they ceased functioning, so she decided her best option was to quickly disable it rather than completely destroy it. If it had time to gather momentum and aim its massive buster cannon, that could become difficult to do.

As she approached the machine it finished turning toward her and immediately fired a blast from the cannon on its front end. Aile easily leapt out of the path of destruction, but several of the remaining mavericks weren't so lucky, exploding in the friendly fire. Aile estimated there were no more than two dozen maverick troops remaining on the field, and she had a feeling most of them wouldn't last much longer with the appearance of the Crushpactors.

_Not that I'm complaining, of course._

The Crushpactor surged forward with a grind of its tank treads as Aile sailed into the air over the beam in an attempt to slam her with its spiked crushing wheel. Aile fired a burst from her turbines that sent her over the entire mechaniloid, landing lightly behind it. Its two sets of heavy-duty tank treads spun as the machine tried to turn its massive bulk for another attack. As the treads spun by Aile activated her Overdrive system and unleashed a charge slash of her trident, freezing and shattering the tread into a million pieces with a single stroke. With only one tread left the Crushpactor was far less maneuverable, but Aile waited patiently for it to spin around until it was facing her once again. Before the buster cannon could fire Aile created a massive Ice Sticker over the end of the barrel, significantly larger than usual thanks to the mysterious increase in her power.

As soon as it could the Crushpactor fired its cannon, not realizing that the barrel had been completely blocked off. The Ice Sticker shattered almost instantly, but not before partially refracting the beam back into itself, causing a massive explosion that ripped the front of the Crushpactor apart, completely destroying the cannon. Aile then made quick work of the opposite set of treads, completely immobilizing the machine.

Satisfied with her handiwork, Aile turned to survey the battlefield and saw, much to her dismay, another four Crushpactors pulling themselves from their landing craters and turning her direction. Looking up, she could also see a fifth lining up to drop out of the transport carrier.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," she groaned. She was just beginning to think she'd bitten off more than she could chew when she heard a weird hissing noise. She was about to ask Model L if she was hearing things when the hiss became a screech and a beam of light shot through the sky, slicing the carrier - and the Crushpactor that was lining up for launch - neatly through the middle.

"It's about time Silure got the _Sword_ working," Model L remarked.

"Yeah, remind me to compliment him on his timing when we get back," Aile replied, then smiled as she saw one half of the fifth Crushpactor fall from the sky and land on top of one of the ones already on the ground, instantly vaporizing it in a massive explosion. "And his aim, too."

Oblivious to the fate of the fourth mechaniloid, the other three Crushpactors immediately revved up their engines and lowered their spiked rollers, charging toward her at full speed.

_The kickback from a buster cannon means they can't fire while they're charging at me, but if I just dodge around them they'll eventually pin me down. I need to destroy one of them quickly, but I'll be a sitting duck for their cannons if I stop moving long enough to do anything...wait. Stop moving...that's it!_

Aile jumped over the still-living wreck of the first Crushpactor and started running. She glanced over her shoulder a few seconds later when she heard the screech of twisting metal as the first Crushpactor was violently shoved out of the way of the next closest one - apparently it had decided that going through the broken wreck was faster than going around. Now that Aile could see exactly how fast a full-speed Crushpactor could move as it raced toward her, she was inclined to agree.

Aile fired a sharp burst of cold air from her empty hand onto the ground in front of her as she ran, coating the surface with a smooth sheet of ice. She deactivated the traction on her boots and fired her dash thrusters, sliding across the ice like an ice skater. Each short burst from her thrusters increased her speed further, to the point where she was traveling almost as fast as the Crushpactor that was now only a few dozen meters behind her, a space it could traverse in only a few seconds.

She continued making her ice pathway all the way up to the base of the valley wall, then jumped and grabbed onto the cliffside. She made sure she was at the perfect height such that the spiked roller could still reach her if the Crushpactor lifted it up - which it predictably did. Just before it crushed her against the wall, Aile jumped up and gave a mighty charged slash across the breadth of the cliff wall, slicing out a massive chunk of rock. She fired her turbines and rocketed over the top of the Crushpactor, unleashing an Ice Dragon at the cliffside as well. The combined force of her attacks and the collision of the massive roller at such high speeds was too much for the relatively sturdy cliffside, which promptly collapsed, burying the unfortunate mechaniloid under several tons of rock.

Unfortunately, Aile's improvised rock slide wasn't enough to finish off the monstrosity completely. As she landed lightly on the ground nearby she could hear the Crushpactor's treads whirring as it tried to free itself from under the rubble, much to her chagrin. Fortunately, it couldn't seem to get enough traction to pull itself free, thanks to the thick layer of ice Aile had made on the ground.

Aile turned to confront the remaining two mechaniloids just in time to see two columns of white energy shooting towards her. She barely managed to throw herself out of the way to avoid both buster cannon blasts as they connected with the half-buried Crushpactor, which promptly exploded, sending shards of rock and metal flying everywhere.

"These guys really don't care about working together at all, do they?!" Aile exclaimed as she rolled out of view of her pursuers behind a large boulder.

"I should think not. They aren't designed to be war machines, so their AI has no concept of teamwork. Each unit just sees the other as an obstacle in the way. If you think they're going to work together to trap you between them, you're giving them far too much credit. They're demolition machines, not strategists."

"Good point." A mischievous smile spread across Aile's face as she had an idea. "In that case, why don't I let these two do all the work for me?"

"I was wondering when you'd figure that out. Honestly, I thought you would have realized this on your own."

"Hey, shut up. At least I haven't died yet."

"Touche."

It didn't take long after that for Aile to convince the two Crushpactors to demolish themselves with each other's spiked rollers and buster cannons. She was feeling quite proud of herself as she landed on top of the last functioning mechaniloid - which she'd jokingly decided to name Edward - just as it finished blowing away the other - Patrick, she'd decided - with a buster cannon blast that had been intended for her. Edward had taken quite a beating himself, but he was still making a heroic attempt to smash her to pieces as he spun vainly in circles to try and shake his prey off.

"I almost feel bad that I have to blow this guy up," Aile remarked sadly. "He did a pretty good job of busting up poor Patrick over there."

"Stop being sentimental and do it before I get so dizzy I start throwing up."

"You don't have a mouth, how could you-"

"Aile, above you!"

Rather than take the time to look up and see what was coming at her, Aile reflexively jumped out of the way. The extra second it gained her gave her just enough time to avoid Aeolus as he slammed his twin blades into the space where she'd just been standing, letting loose an intense electric discharge. Unable to handle the massive power surge, the mechaniloid promptly exploded from within, sending pieces of jagged shrapnel through the air.

"You could have given me a bit more warning," Aile complained to her biometal as she dodged and slashed around flying pieces of scrap metal.

"Sorry, I was distracted by your sentimentality over a giant rolling pin with wheels," Model L retorted. "Now get ready, he's coming this way."

"I know that, you don't have to tell me everything, yeesh."

"Listen to the two of you, bickering like children," came Aeolus's voice as the green Mega Man stepped out from behind the smoking wreckage of the Crushpactor. "I'm glad you changed sides, Model L. You fit in much better with those wretches."

"Better than being a turncoat, Model H. What would Master X say if he were here?"

"That is irrelevant," Model H replied, his voice void of emotion. "Master X is no longer here. Each of us can only do what they believe is best for the world. That doesn't mean we have to agree on what that might be."

"Well, that's something we _can_ agree on," Model L replied. "If you think that the best thing for the world is to kill everything in it, then it's my job to stop you. It always has been, and it always will."

"I'd like to see you try," Aeolus sneered. "Unlike the last time, your friends aren't here to bail you out. I'm going to rip you apart."

"Shut up and fight!" Aile yelled as she charged, trident ready.

Aeolus swung his twin blades through the air, sending waves of sonic ripples at Aile. She fired the dash turbines on her head as she jumped and rolled sideways, nimbly dodging each ripple as she rocketed forward. After she closed the distance between them Aeolus met her charging slash with an attack of his own. After exchanging a quick flurry of swipes and stabs Aile ducked under one of Aeolus's attacks, then sprung forward in a shoulder charge, knocking him off balance. As he stumbled a few feet backward she extended her trident and slashed horizontally, hoping to catch him before he could recover. Unfortunately for her, Aeolus simply pushed off the ground with both feet and fired his thrusters, backflipping neatly over the deadly blade. By the time he landed he had completely recovered from Aile's attack and launched forward, preceding his charge with two Plasma Tornadoes.

Aile dashed around the two Tornadoes and fired several Ice Needles to hinder Aeolus's charge, but he easily outmaneuvered all of them as he shot toward her like a missile. Aile deflected his slashing attack with her trident, then turned to face him as he instantly reversed direction and charged back at her again a second later. Her feet dug trenches through the ground as he pushed her backward, applying pressure on his two blades as they sparked against her trident.

Looking to turn the situation to her advantage, Aile took a gamble. She let herself fall backward onto the ground, bringing her feet up to connect with Aeolus's chest. As the green Mega Man's momentum sent him flying over top of her, she kicked upward, sending him through the air in a spin for several meters before he recovered. He quickly fired his flight stabilizers and rocketed back down at her, reversing his hold on one sword in so that he could stick it through Aile like a stake. Aile countered by extending the blade of her trident and pointing it up at him like a giant spike. Aeolus veered sideways to avoid impaling himself, instead landing hard on the ground a few meters away. Before Aile could release her enlarged blade he was beside her again, slashing down with one blade and across with the other. She barely managed leap back in time to avoid getting sliced into four pieces, but a yelp of pain still escaped her lips as she felt the bite of both blades slicing across her armor, leaving deep gashes. Neither hit was deep enough to reach skin, but it still stung.

"That hurt, did it? You'd better give up before I have to do it again," Aeolus taunted from where he stood a short distance away, smirking.

_Damn, that was a mistake,_ Aile scolded herself angrily, gritting her teeth against the stinging pain in her torso. _He's too fast. I need to be faster! Faster, dammit, faster!_ "Shut up and fight, you goddamn windbag!" She yelled, then charged.

For some reason, as she flew towards her opponent a confused look spread across Aeolus's face. "What? What happened to your-" He didn't have time to finish his thought as Aile was suddenly in his face, her trident spinning like a blender as he began deflecting the blows.

_Faster, faster, faster! I need to be faster than him! I can do this, I know I can! Faster, harder, stronger! I just need a little more!_

And suddenly, inexplicably, everything slid into place.

It was like the entire world slowed to a crawl around her as she spun her trident in vicious circles, both ends sparking as they were deflected by Aeolus's flashing blades. But unlike a moment ago, all of the lessons Zero had taught her the previous day came rushing into her mind, as well as a few he hadn't. She was able to read every one of Aeolus's moves like a book, as though she'd spent her entire life studying swordplay. His movements seemed slow, sloppy, and loose compared to her own, which were becoming increasingly fluid and precise. The trident felt weightless in her hands as she twirled it about, reversing her hold on it in the blink of an eye and coming at the bewildered Mega Man from every angle imaginable.

It was only a matter of seconds before Aile successfully got through Aeolus's blundering defenses and delivered an elbow jab to the side of his head. In the split second it took for the blow to register in Aeolus's mind, Aile activated her Overdrive and executed a complete spin in the air, bringing her trident around at full power in a vicious slash aimed at the off-balance Aeolus's midsection. He tried to fling himself backward to avoid the attack, but he wasn't fast enough - Aile's lance cleaved cleanly through the left half of his chest armor, ripping it clean off his body and leaving a solid mass of ice in its place.

Aile halted her attack as Aeolus shot backward clutching the wound in his chest, disbelief clear on his face. "H-how...how did you do that? Your eyes changed color and now...what did you do?"

"This is the last time I'll say this," Aile said...or rather, she heard herself say. The words were coming out of her own mouth, but she wasn't the one speaking them. "Let the boy go, Harpuia. I don't want to kill a human, but if that's what it takes to stop you, I will." Aile was surprised at the fierceness in her own voice, but was even more surprised at what she was actually saying.

_Harpuia? Why did I say that? Model L used that name a few times, but why did I just use it? What's going on?_

"Model L, what are you doing? You do realize that-" Model H started, but Aile wouldn't let him finish.

"Wrong answer! Prepare yourself!" She yelled, then used the power she'd been storing to unleash four ice dragons into the air as she dashed straight toward her target.

_Four ice dragons? I didn't even know it was possible to make that many at once. When did I learn to do that?_

Aeolus swung his twin blades faster than he'd ever swung them in his entire life, fighting desperately to keep up with the whirlwind of strikes from Aile's trident as well as avoid the four ice dragons as they swooped down at him, crashing into the ground nearby every time they missed. He bought himself a moment to breathe as he dodged sideways around one of Aile's attacks, then shot himself into the air as the fourth and final ice dragon crashed into the ground where he'd been standing a moment before.

"How did she suddenly become so fast?" Aeolus desperately asked his biometal, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he tried to ignore the pain in his chest. "It's like she's a whole different person! Model H, what's going on?!"

"It would seem that Model L has Biomerged with the girl - you're not fighting Aile anymore. I'm afraid she isn't bragging when she says she's going to kill you, she's stating a fact. At this rate, you don't stand much of a chance against her."

"A Biomerge? What the hell is that?!"

"I'll explain later. Right now, if you value your life, I suggest we retreat."

"Grrr...all right." He looked down at Aile, who seemed to be waiting to see what he'd do next. "You win this round, girl! We'll meet again, you can count on it!" Then he turned and fired his jets full blast, taking off for the front of his maverick lines.

"What?! Get back here, you stupid son of a bitch!" Aile yelled, then fired her own dash thrusters and turbines at full speed, taking off into the air like a rocket.

_Wait, why aren't I letting him go? Do I really need to chase after him? All I came out here to do was fight him off..._

She shot up to meet Aeolus in midair as he flew over her, his jaw dropping in disbelief as he barely reacted in time to parry Aile's attack as she zipped past him.

"Since when can you fly?" He yelled, veering sideways to dodge her next flying slash.

_Since when can I fly?_

"Since long before you were born, asshole! I told you, this ends now, before you can cause any more damage than you already have!"

_When did I start swearing so much?_

Aile shot downward with a hard overhand slash, holding the trident with both hands as she brought it around with full force. Aeolus successfully caught the attack with his crossed swords, but the power of the blow drove him downward. Aile's follow-up attack came immediately after, forcing him even closer to the ground as she unleashed a charged slash followed by several quick jabs. He managed to deflect the attacks, but was caught by surprise when the girl shot past him, grabbed hold of his left arm in mid-swing, then let out a yell as she hurled him over her shoulder towards the ground with enough force to break every bone in his body. Even with his thrusters firing at full power Aeolus still had to wince when he collided with the ground as the shock ran up his legs. He then instinctively dashed sideways, an instinct that prevented him from being cleaved in two by Aile's followup attack. Her trident hit the ground with an explosion of icy air as the blade hissed and steamed - her Overdrive was so powerful that it had plunged the temperature of the blade by over a hundred degrees in the space of a few seconds.

_When did I become so powerful? And what am I doing? My body feels like it's moving on its own...what's happening to me?_

Seeking to gain the advantage before Aile could recover, Aeolus quickly turned around and shot forward in a blur of light, his two swords held out before him. Or, it would have looked like a blur to anyone else. To Aile, it seemed like he was simply running towards her. It was a simple matter for her to sidestep his attack at the last moment, then bring her knee up to connect painfully with Aeolus's chest where she'd previously ripped the armor off. She heard a sickening crack of metal and bone as the green Mega Man collided with her knee at full speed, knocking the wind out of him in a rush. Before he even realized what Aile had done she spun and delivered a swift roundhouse kick to the side of his head, breaking his flight thrusters and sending him skidding across the ground. He finally came to a stop several meters away, completely motionless.

_What am I doing? Am I really going to kill him? I don't want to kill anyone! Model L, what's going on?!_

_Relax, Aile. Just leave this to me. Soon this will all be over._

_What? What are you talking about? Are you doing this? Model L, what are you doing?_

_What I have to._

Aile felt herself slowly walk over to where Aeolus lay face-up on the ground, silent and unmoving. As she approached he lifted the sword in his right hand, but Aile easily grabbed his wrist with her left hand and twisted, causing him to drop the sword with a yelp of pain. Before he could even lift his other sword from the ground Aile stomped on it with her foot, forcing him to drop that one as well. Bruised, battered, and disarmed, Aeolus laid helplessly on the ground in front of her as she leveled the point of her trident at his throat.

_Model L, stop! Don't do this! You can't just kill him like this!_

"I gave you every chance to run away, but still you persisted," Aile could hear her voice say, the trident unwavering. "I don't want to do this, but you leave me no other choice."

"Can you really do it, Leviathan?" Model H's voice said. "Can you really kill a human? What would Master X do if he could see you now? Once you do it, there's no going back. Are you sure you want to do this?"

_No, I'm not! I don't want to do this! Stop it! Model L, STOP!_

"You said it yourself, Harpuia. Master X is no longer here. I can only do what I think is best for the world. If I have to damn myself to do it, then so be it!"

_NO! I SAID STOP!_

Aile pulled the trident back for the final blow, then-

_**STOP IT!**_

-a searing pain lanced through her mind, pain so intense she was momentarily blinded as it shot through her entire body. Caught completely by surprise, Aile stumbled several steps away from the man she'd just been about to kill, both hands instinctively and futilely clutching her head.

_**STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT**_

Aile tried to keep her trident pointed at where Aeolus lay on the ground, but soon the pain proved too much for her to handle. She tried to speak, but found her voice wouldn't work - the only sound she could seem to make was a painful, ear-piercing scream. The last things Aile could remember before she passed out were the feeling of her biolink breaking, and seeing the bewildered look on Aeolus's face as she fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

In every sense imaginable, Aeolus had no idea what was going on. He remained motionless on the ground for several moments after Aile's body had stopped moving, unsure of what to do next.

"What...what just happened?" He tentatively asked his biometal as he sat up.

"If I had to guess, I would say that while Model L was ready and willing to kill you, Aile was not, so she forcibly broke her Biomerge. You're very lucky; if it weren't for her, you'd be dead right now."

"You mean...that girl, Aile...she saved me?"

"It would appear so, yes."

Aeolus glanced over to where Aile lay on the ground, unconscious. She still held Model L firmly in her left hand, but the biometal was also completely motionless. It looked to him as though the shock of breaking the...Biomerge, Model H had called it...had completely disabled them both.

Aeolus slowly picked himself up, the searing pain in his chest from Aile's attacks causing him to wince as he did so, and went to stare down at the helpless girl. His twin blades still held in each hand, he couldn't seem to bring himself to lift them for what would certainly be a killing blow.

_I could end it, right here, right now. If I let her live I know I'll have to fight her again, and next time I may not be so lucky. But right now, with one clean stroke, I could just..._he closed his eyes and shook his head. _What's wrong with me? I've already taken the lives of so many innocent people to see my plan through to the end, why can't I take this one? Why is this so different?!_

_Is it because she saved me? Why did she do that? Why couldn't she kill me? Doesn't she hate me? I tried to kill her, and her brother. I'm fighting for everything she stands against. So why, why did she refuse to let me die?_

As he looked down at the motionless form before him, a strange thought crept unbidden into his mind. _Does she...pity me?_ Aeolus thought to himself. He could almost picture an arrogant smirk plastered across her unmoving lips, mocking him. _Does she think she's better than me? That for some reason she deserves to win, because she's 'right'? She thinks I'm a fool!_ An angry scowl spread across his face as he felt a wave of irrational ranger surge up from within.

"How dare she!" Aeolus abruptly yelled, startling his biometal. "How dare she mock me with her pity! I'll show her what I think of her self-indulgent kindness!"

"Aeolus, what are you talking about?" Model H yelled as his Chosen One raised his sabers for a killing blow.

"Die the dog's death you deserve, you arrogant little-"

Aeolus's rant was rudely interrupted when an explosion rocked him in the chest, causing his sabers to fly from his hands and disappear as he was thrown backward through the air, away from Aile.

"What was that?" Aeolus said, bewildered. Moments later there was another explosion a short distance to his left, followed by one just a bit to his right. "What's going on?"

"It appears we're no longer alone," Model H informed him. "There are a number of vehicles approaching from the southwest." Looking off in the direction Model H had indicated, Aeolus could indeed see several jeeps quickly approaching his position, the foremost of which had a man standing in the front seat with a rifle braced against the windshield, pointed directly at him.

"Who are they? They aren't wearing Guardian uniforms."

"I should think that's irrelevant at this point," Model H said, trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice. "We have sustained too much damage, if we remain here we are likely to be captured or killed. Since my flight unit has been disabled, our best choice for escaping is for you to activate your emergency transceiver beacon."

Aeolus growled in frustration. "Running away again...dammit!" He grudgingly did as Model H had suggested and activated the transceiver beacon he'd taken from Legion before leaving. It sent a request to a specific transerver in Legion that Thomas had set up for emergencies just like this one, and moments later Aeolus vanished from sight.

* * *

The closest jeep pulled up alongside the unconscious form of Aile, and the man with the rifle quickly hopped out and rushed to her side.

"Who is it, Tuck? Is she okay?" The man in the driver's seat asked anxiously, his bushy white eyebrows raised in concern.

"I've got no idea who she is, Mack, but she's wearing a Guardian uniform, which means she's a friendly," Tuck replied, pushing back the locks of long brown hair that fell over his eyes. "I think she's just passed out. Looks like we got here just in time, that green guy was pretty beat up and looking mighty pissed off at the little missy. Murray, help me get her into the jeep, we'll take her along with us. Someone's gotta get to that Guardian fort thingamajig anyway and tell them we're on their side."

A third man with short-cropped blonde hair hopped out from the back of the jeep, tossing a rifle over his shoulder to hang by the strap as he bent over to help lift the unconscious girl into the vehicle. As they did so, he happened to notice the small blue piece of metal the girl had in her left hand, clutched in a deathgrip.

"Hey, whaddya think she's got there?" The man named Murray asked, pointing out the object to his companions.

"I don't know, but if she's so determined to hold on to it, I'm not going to argue with her. Come on, let's get out of here. Who knows when more of those maverick bastards are going to show up."

* * *

It was quite some time later when Aile awoke to find herself in her own bed back on the Guardian Base. She lay motionless for several minutes as she tried to piece together her memories of the fight with Aeolus, as well as figure out how she'd ended up back at the Base. The last thing she remembered was Aeolus's face as she fell face-first toward the ground-

_Right after I tried to kill him._

Her entire body went rigid at that thought as she remembered exactly what had happened. On the one hand, she'd felt this overwhelming urge to run him through and get it over with - he'd killed hundreds, if not thousands of people; he deserved to die. After all, it had been her responsibility to make sure that if Harpuia ever went out of control that-

_Wait, what?_ She immediately caught herself when that name crossed her mind. _I remember thinking that, but why? That's not me at all. Model L...what was she doing? She said something, that it would all be over soon..._

"What the hell is wrong with me...?" Aile moaned out loud to nobody in particular.

"I was wondering when you'd wake up," Model L's voice said from somewhere off to the right. Moments later she floating into Aile's field of view, hovering silently above her chest. "You've been out for over four hours."

"What happened to me?" Aile asked her biometal anxiously. "What happened out there? Why couldn't I control myself? Why was I suddenly so determined to kill Aeolus? Where are all these weird thoughts coming from?!" Her voice became more panicked with every question. "What the hell is going on, Model L?"

The blue biometal sighed and sat herself down on Aile's lap as the girl sat up. "I think it's far past time that I explain everything."

"A...Biomerge?" Aile said, testing out the word. "Why haven't any of you ever mentioned something like this before?"

"It's not something we biometals particularly like to think about," Model L replied. "Besides, it was never really all that important an issue."

"Not that important?!" Aile exclaimed angrily. "It's sure as hell important to me! You don't think I should know that you can start taking over my body and doing whatever you want with it anytime you feel like it?!"

"It doesn't work like that," Model L explained. "Honestly, I didn't even realize it was happening until I was already in control. You are adapting to my biolink much faster than I'd anticipated, and when you were fighting Aeolus, well...I got carried away."

"No kidding! You took over my body without even so much as a by your leave from me!"

"I told you, I didn't mean to. Honestly, I didn't even know that was possible - none of us have ever done a Biomerge before, so while I was expecting some sort of side effects, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind - I didn't think it would let me take complete control of your body. I didn't do it on purpose...though I'm honest enough to admit that I wanted to. Please, Aile, you have to believe me."

That sounded as close to begging as Aile thought she would ever hear come out of the blue biometal, but it didn't do anything to soothe her temper. "You sure as hell looked like you were going to kill Aeolus on purpose! What the hell gives you the right to use my body to commit cold-blooded murder?!" She grabbed her hair with both hands in frustration, shaking her head back and forth to try and sort out her thoughts. "Model L, whether I believe you or not...how am I supposed to trust you after this? How can you possibly expect me to Megamerge - Biomerge, whatever the hell it is now - with you now that I know you can just take control of me and, and...do whatever the hell you want with me!"

"It's not like that, Aile, I can't just..." Model tried to explain again, but then stopped herself. "No, you're absolutely right. You can't trust me. I've betrayed you, and you're right to be afraid of me. There's no guarantee that I won't do something like that again, and next time you may not be so lucky as to escape alive.

"But listen, Aile. I need you. There's nobody else in the entire world who can form a biolink with me anymore, and I hate the thought of sitting on the sidelines while Thomas carries out his plans to 'reset the world', or whatever the hell it is we're trying to stop him from doing. Please, give me a chance to redeem myself and prove to you that I'm worthy of your trust again."

Aile was silent for a long while before she laid back down and rolled onto her side, kicking Model L off into the air. "Leave me alone for a while," she said quietly.

Model L did as she was asked, floating over to sit herself down on top of a nearby dresser while she waited. She knew she was asking a lot of the girl immediately after breaking the trust she'd earned from her, so she was willing to give Aile all the time she needed to think things over. As much as she hated to admit it, she would also have to force herself to go along with whatever Aile decided, whether she liked it or not.

It was several incredibly long minutes before Aile spoke again, her face still turned towards the wall. "You have to promise me something."

"Anything."

"I am not a tool. I'm not a piece of property for you to use as you see fit - I don't belong to anyone. I'm not going to do anything you tell me to if I don't agree with it, and I don't just mean killing people."

"Aile, I was the one determined to kill Aeolus, not you. It would have been my responsibility-"

"Shut up!" Aile yelled as she sat up and whirled to glare at her biometal, but then almost immediately calmed down again. "You may have been the one who wanted to do it, but it was my body you were doing it with. You can't honestly believe that I would be completely absolved of guilt just because you were in control. When it all boils down to it, I'm still the only one who can be held accountable for the actions I take.

"So I need you to promise that you won't ever, ever take control of me again without asking first. Even if you're in control, I am still the one who is ultimately responsible for the actions I take - I refuse to let anyone else, even you, be the one who decides what those actions are.

"So promise me, right now, or else get the hell out of my room and don't ever come back."

There were a few moments of tense silence between the two as they stared at each other, then Model L couldn't help but start laughing. It started out as a low chuckle, but eventually erupted into full-blown laughter.

"What's so goddamn funny?" Aile yelled indignantly.

"Oh, Aile, I knew I'd picked the right person when I chose you," Model L said, slowly calming herself down. "I agree with everything you just said. In fact, I couldn't have put it better myself. If only I'd been able to think like that a little bit earlier, so many horrible things could have been avoided.

"I will easily and gladly promise you that. In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good," Aile replied, though with a slightly confused look on her face at Model L's choice of words. She decided it was probably one of those things she'd never really understand about the mysterious biometal and her...peculiar way of looking at life. "Honestly, I'm glad you feel that way. I really do like having you around, Model L."

"Well, that's good to know. I feel much the same way, you know. I don't recall ever having a friend before, but I suppose you're the closest I've ever gotten, and I have very few complaints so far."

Aile giggled - that was probably the closest she'd ever get to a compliment out of her friend. "So, now that that's out of the way..." Aile waved an arm at the room around her. "Would you mind explaining how the hell I went from lying unconscious in the middle of a battlefield to sleeping peacefully in my bedroom?"

Model L chuckled again. "Well, believe it or not, you have Prairie to thank for that one."

* * *

"Dammit!" Aeolus screamed as he hacked another maverick corpse to pieces, slashing and beating it repeatedly until Model H couldn't even tell what kind of mechaniloid it had originally been. "Dammit dammit dammit! Im' the Mega Man of the Air, I can't be defeated! Why do I keep losing to that stupid girl?!"

"Calm down, Aeolus. Model L was built as a counter to my abilities, it can only be expected that you would have a difficult time defeating her." "How the hell did she suddenly start moving so fast?!" Aeolus demanded, completely ignoring what his biometal was saying. "I had her in the palm of my hand, and then suddenly she started moving like lightning! I couldn't lay a finger on her!" He whirled to look at Model H, a mad glint in his eye. "You! You said something, back then. Biomerge, was it? What the hell is that? Is that why she was so much more powerful than me?"

Model H could immediately see where this conversation was headed, and regretted ever opening his mouth and muttering the word 'Biomerge'. Unfortunately, he didn't see any way out of the corner he'd backed himself into - Aeolus had become increasingly unstable since returning to Legion, and he showed no signs of getting any better.

"A Biomerge is a special kind of Megamerge. It allows a biometal to transfer an increased amount of data through the biolink, resulting in a significant increase in their power levels and abilities."

"Why didn't you say anything about it before?" Aeolus yelled, taking another slice at a nearby maverick corpse. "Are you telling me I could have had as much power as that girl from the beginning?" "A Biomerge is not something to be considered lightly. In order to Biomerge with you, I would never be able to create a biolink with any other person, ever again."

"So what?!" Aeolus yelled. "You've already damned yourself into following me through to the end of this little charade, what else have you got to lose? You're stuck with me either way, so what the hell are you waiting for? I need more power, and if this Biomerge thing is the only way I can get it, then I want you to do it!"

_He truly has lost all sense of reason,_ Model H thought to himself, then sighed heavily. _I see, now. I guess this just the beginning of the punishment I deserve. Fate is a cruel mistress, indeed._

"Very well," Model H replied, and a maniacal grin spread across Aeolus's features.

"Excellent! The next time we meet, I'll show that impudent girl that she's no better than the rest of the garbage we call humanity, and that only I deserve to exist in the new world, not her!"

The half-crazed Chosen One continued to waltz around the room, cackling maniacally as he hacked various mechaniloid corpses to pieces, leaving Model H to sink silently into the corner, resigning himself to suffer through the karmic fate brought down upon him.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

And Aeolus slowly goes a little more crazy after each defeat...if you think some of his reasoning is a little off, madness isn't supposed to make sense. Poor Model H...

And yes, that's an 'Airman ga Taosenai' reference. I couldn't help it, it came on my iTunes while I was writing that part.

Hoo-boy, this part took a while. Sorry about that, have a lot of things going on that are keeping me away from this fic, the most pertinent being the D&D campaign I recently started DM'ing. I'm using the setting from an original story I've been thinking about writing, so I've been spending a lot of time working on that in an effort to flesh it out before I actually start writing. What that basically means for you is that I'm not spending as much time writing Return to Zero as I used to. Sorry! On the bright side, I got bored of writing this part at one point and started writing sections of the next one, so I've already got a bit of a head start on it. I'm hoping it won't take longer than a month to get it finished, but as with this part, it's quite an important one so I'm trying really hard to get it right. Before you ask, yes, it's the Omega fight. Bet you can't guess how it ends. ;) Besides, this part has once again turned into a mammoth-size brick of text, so it's not like I'm cheating you out of a good amount of reading, here.

Also, fight scenes take a while to plan out. There's times when I'm "writing" this story that I simply stare at the monitor and think about it's all going to pan out until my screensaver comes on. So when I have parts like this one that are mostly fighting, it tends to take a while to get them finished. :(

I haven't yet decided whether Mack, Tuck, and Murray will be making more appearances, but I'd like to think they will. For now I'll let you guess at who they are. I pulled the names out of my ass at 3AM, so don't bother trying to use those for clues.

That attack Aile did with the freezing beam thingy, I stole from Blizzard Buffalo (MMX3). It was either that or the one Blizzard Staggroff uses (or however you spell it, the guy in MMZ1) but I figured I'd save that for later. Also, yes, I stole the flip-off-a-motorbike thing from Matrix Reloaded. Say what you will about the movie, but that's a pretty badass way to start a fight, IMO.

I'd intended on explaining exactly how and why Model L managed to take over Aile's body (she's not kidding when she says "it doesn't work like that") but I just couldn't fit it in the narrative very well. Instead, it'll get explained later on when Aile tells everyone else what happened. Until then you'll just have to sit in wonder and amazement. :O

"Onslaught" is the music that plays in ZX when you're defending the Guardian Base from Pandora and Prometheus after beating 4 robot masters. I mostly just took it 'cause the name fit.

The only thing I'm really unhappy with in this part is Aile's little spiel to Model L about not "being a piece of property". I was trying to relate it back to Model L's speech to Model X and Zero in part 17 (yes, I was planning this far ahead) but while the wording worked back then it didn't work so well now (I just didn't plan very well :\). As a result, Aile's words sound a little awkward and out o place, but I think I managed to smooth it over decently well. It's one of those things that if I hadn't already posted part 17 I could go and retcon to make the two conversations work better together, but it would just be weird to do that now, so I'll have to live with it. Bah!

Once again, thanks to everyone who keeps reading this, and all the new people who've added me as favorites/alerts! I hate to admit it, but giving me a really nice review when I haven't updated in 37 days is a *really* good way to guilt-trip me into getting my arse in gear and getting an update ready. :D I'm also constantly surprised at the number of them I get when I haven't updated in soooo long; you guys rock. Hopefully I haven't lost too many people's interest in the past month. So, thank you, to both old and new!


	21. Part 20: Cannon Ball

**Author's Note:**

Yes, for certain reasons the author's note is going at the top of the page this time around. If you don't want to read it, just hit page down or something.

So, this took forever. Partly because it's stupidly long; remind me to never write a part this long ever again. It takes me like 30-45mins just to do one editing pass through the damn thing, and considering how many times I like to edit before I post, that's a _lot_ of time. Considering this is one of my most ambitious parts to date and I tried doing a _lot _of new things, I also wanted to make sure it was as good as it could possibly be, so I reviewed it even more than usual. Combine that with the fact that September was an incredibly crazy month and I didn't have either the time nor the inclination to do any writing of any kind, and you get a rather long delay. I actually had about 80% of this written two weeks after I posted part 19, but then sat on it for a month while I dealt with life. Then it took me all of October to get the ending to the point where I was comfortable posting it, because it's probably the most important part of the story so far, and thus the most difficult to write. I'm still not completely satisfied with it, but honestly, after working on the same 14679 words for two months (yes, that's how long it is) I'm tired of looking at it. Normally I go through the uploaded document once just before I post it just to make sure the formatting didn't break anywhere, but this time I can't be bothered. If you see anything wonky like missing line breaks or something, let me know and I'll fix it.

If you want a reply to your review, don't post an anonymous one. I don't have any issues with anonymous reviews, but I can't reply to you if you leave one. Rest assured I do read them, though. That being said, I put a note in my profile that should address a few of the issues in recent reviews. Feel free to take a gander. Once again, I thank everyone who takes the time to read and leave their opinion. I really do read them all, and it makes me smile every time I log into my email and see it spammed with review and favorite alerts.

I feel the need to issue a bit of a content warning for this part. If you thought fighting the God of Destruction was going to be full of sunshine and rainbows, think again. I managed to keep the language relatively clean, but there's some graphic descriptions in here. Just a heads up that this part is one of the reasons this fic has a T rating.

Well then, I think that's enough out of me for now. There's a couple more notes at the end. If I put them here I'd spoil things.

* * *

Part 20: Cannon Ball

For the most part, the room Zero and Prairie stepped into didn't resemble anything out of the ordinary - or what passed for ordinary down in the depths of the Ragnarok, anyway. The ground still pulsed with a weird greenish hue and floated inexplicably in midair, while the odd blue glow continued to pervade the atmosphere. The room itself was quite spacious, and also quite empty - aside from the lone, familiar-looking figure standing quietly in the center of the room, gazing out at the swirling black vortex in the distance. His armor was the color of blood, with the unarmored joints covered by a dark purple bodysuit - just as Zero remembered it. The only thing missing was the flowing blond hair, which was nowhere to be seen.

"I was wondering when someone would show up to stop me," the crimson maverick said calmly, still gazing off into the distance. "But I never thought it would be you, and especially not in a female body. Didn't you die?"

"Didn't you?" Zero retorted, earning a chuckle from his foe.

"Touche. But you know, it's like they always say..." The evil reploid turned to face them, an insane grin splitting his all-too-familiar face in two. "Legends never really die."

To Prairie, it seemed very uncharacteristic and out of place on Zero's face, which she had always remembered as having a strong, silent, comforting feeling behind it. In fact, everything about the maverick seemed to radiate evil, right down to the orange-red pupils of his stark-white eyes.

Zero remained silent, but Prairie could tell he was as taken aback by Omega's words as she was. "Zero, you said that in the crystal mine when you first came back. How did Omega...?"

"Oh, did he really?" Omega yelled abruptly, picking up his sinister laughing once again. "How fitting. We are one and the same, after all. But that's neither here nor there, really. Did you honestly think a little thing like a couple of walls and a door were enough to keep the God of Destruction locked in his cage? So naive, all of you! Oh sure, they kept me contained for the first hundred years or so, but then I learned how to do something _very _interesting." He shot them another menacing grin. "Would you like to know what it was?"

"Not particularly," Zero replied nonchalantly, but Omega continued on anyway.

"I learned how to enter the Cyberworld!" Omega cried, raising his fists dramatically into the air. "That's right, from right here, in my own little corner of this godforsaken hole you call a planet, I could see the entire world! I could see everything going on, everywhere! Each and every little spark of life that winked into existence screamed out at me, another little light for me to extinguish when my plan was finally complete!"

"You can't be serious..." Prairie said in disbelief. "You've been down here all these years because...you wanted to be?"

"Let him finish, Prairie," Zero said quietly.

"Yes, let me finish!" Omega cried out triumphantly as he walked around the room, waving his arms for emphasis. "Because, you see, I haven't even gotten to the best part! For the past hundred years I've been the silent watcher in the dark, the cloaked shadow in the Cyberworld, preparing for the day when I would be ready to unleash this!" He pointed dramatically towards the black vortex in the distance, which seemed to Zero to be a lot closer now than when they'd been in the previous room - undoubtedly another perspective-warping aspect of the strange space they were currently in.

"I assume you're going to tell us what that is," Zero said, sounding pointedly bored with the entire affair.

"Of course I am!" Omega screamed, incredibly annoyed at his apparently inability to impress Zero. "If I don't tell you what it is, then there's no way for you to appreciate the beauty of it!

"Behold, the instrument of this world's destruction! As soon as my creation is complete I will unleash it on the unsuspecting Cyberworld, infecting every man, woman and child, human and reploid alike who connects to it, turning them all into my unwilling slaves! Then, I'll take my revenge out on this world for keeping me locked way like a dog for so long! My return to the light will be more brilliant than the sun, and so catastrophic and apocalyptic that only the true God of Destruction could have imagined it!"

He whirled to look at Zero once again, a mad glint in his eyes. "Well? Are you terrified yet?"

"I don't know, are you finished?" Zero replied, faking a yawn with the back of his hand, earning him a hateful glare from Omega. "Tell me, at any point during the past two hundred years you spent rehearsing that speech did you ever realize how incredibly cliche it was?"

"What?!" Omega roared indignantly. "I'm about to unleash the most devastating virus ever created upon the world you hold so dear, and yet you come all the way down here, into this hellish pit of a prison, to _mock me_? Only you, my oh-so-famed Original, could be so cocky and arrogant as to attempt to brush me aside like a fly!"

"You're right, I am your original. We're very alike, you and I, in a lot of different ways. But there's one very important difference between us that I hadn't noticed until now." Zero Prairie's head to give Omega a glare of utter contempt. "I was never quite so full of it."

Omega's jaw dropped so far it almost hit the ground, matched by Prairie's as she realized Zero had given her control of her facial features again, and promptly lost control of them. "Zero, what on earth are you talking about?" She asked, bewildered.

"I guess you hadn't noticed, Omega, but I'm a cyber-elf now. I read data like you read books." He gestured at the blue atmosphere around them. "See all this? It took me a little while but I finally figured out what it is. It's a barrier encompassing this entire area that prevents any form of digital signal from being sent into or out of it. There's no way for Omega to get even the tiniest scrap of data through this field, no matter how long he sits down here and tries to do it." Zero snorted derisively. "Some God of Destruction you turned out to be. It took you two hundred years to fix yourself up, but I doubt it took Ciel even two days to shut you down again."

Omega growled angrily as Zero casually exposed his lies. "Fine," he spat, "you called my bluff. But I wasn't completely full of it. This really is a virus that will let me control anyone it infects, and I really am going to unleash it on the world - it'll be the Elf Wars all over again! But this time, neither you or that pest X will be around to stop me. But first, I think I'll start by testing it out on you. Then I'll make you watch as I crush your little girlfriend's skull into so many tiny little pieces that you'll wonder how they ever formed a head to begin with!"

The two figures stared each other down across the empty expanse of the room, the tension so thick it seemed to quiver in the air like a taut bowstring. He waited patiently for Omega's next move, and was taken slightly by surprise when the red reploid stomped his foot and grunted in frustration.

"Dammit, why can't I infect you?! What have you done...?" Then his face lit up in another grin. "Oh, I see how it works now. You're in there, and she's in there." An odd look suddenly crept onto his face as he cocked his head sideways. "Is this how reploids get married these days?"

"What?!" Prairie spluttered. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Zero isn't-I mean, we're friends, but we're not-"

"I'm just borrowing her body temporarily," Zero said, cutting off Prairie's babbling. "That's all. This is between you and me, Omega. Stop trying to get her involved."

"You didn't have to be _that_ cold about it..." Prairie mumbled, unheard by either of the two males.

"Oh really?" Omega replied casually, dismissing the issue. "Well then, I guess if I want to do any infecting I'll just have to tear you two apart first. In the end it doesn't really matter who or what she is to you, she'll still make the same noise when I rip her lungs out through her throat." Then he charged forward in a crimson blur, hands outstretched.

Prairie squeezed her eyes shut to keep herself from getting in Zero's way as he tried to materialize his saber, but Omega closed the distance between them much faster than he'd expected and instead he was forced to use both hands to keep his neck out of the red maverick's deadly grasp. When Omega saw that he wasn't going to get past Zero's defenses he started throwing punches, and the two reploids were quickly engulfed in a lightning-quick duel of powerful blows backed with enough force to put holes through solid steel.

Zero went on the defensive as he devoted all of his concentration on dodging, weaving, and blocking Omega's flurry of attacks. He ducked left to avoid a left jab at the same time he raised one arm to block a vicious right hook before it hit with enough force to take his head from his shoulders, then he caught Omega's downward chop with his other arm before it connected with his shoulder. Both his arms now occupied, Omega kicked out with one foot, successfully hitting Zero square in the chest and knocking him back a few feet. While both he and Prairie steeled themselves against the shock of the blow, Zero used the two seconds it took for Omega to rush forward and follow-up to form his Z-Saber. Still slightly off-balance, Zero slashed wildly in an arc in front of him in an attempt to keep Omega at bay. In his mad dash forward Omega was caught unprepared by the sudden appearance of the saber, but handled it in stride. Without losing his momentum he fell backward and slid across the metal floor with a screech of metal on metal, coming to a stop just in front of the now-recovered Zero. Omega sprung to his feet just as Zero grabbed his sword in both hands and sliced downward, catching Zero's crossed wrists in his hands.

"Bringing out the sword already?" Omega said, his mouth curling into a sneer. "I'm not making you nervous, am I?"

Zero's response was a kick at Omega's shin, which he dodged with a quick sidestep, forcing him to let go of Zero's wrists. Zero quickly swung his blade around in a circle, but Omega was too quick and had backed far out of reach before the sword got anywhere near him.

"Well then, I guess that's enough of a warmup. We'll do things your way then," Omega said after he'd stopped his short retreat as a purple beam saber flashed to life in his right hand. "It's a pity though, I enjoy using my bare hands a lot more. That way you can really feel the moment when you squeeze the last drop of life out of someone."

"Did he always talk this much?" Prairie asked.

"No, but if I were locked down here by myself for two hundred years, I'd be feeling pretty talkative too," Zero replied, then rushed forward to meet Omega head-on.

Sparks and electricity shot through the air as the two sabers clashed again and again, leaving streaks of green and purple as they cut silently through the air in a deadly dance of blades. Zero was holding back slightly, leaving Omega a few openings here and there to see which ones he would go for and which he would ignore, always ready to pull back and defend himself from Omega's 'counterattack'. He could see a places in Omega's technique that left him open as well, but Zero had no way of knowing whether the crimson reploid really was such a sloppy swordsman or if he was simply employing the same tactic Zero was to gauge his opponent's abilities.

_Well, let's find out._

Zero waited until Omega made another mistake in his swordplay - he thrust his saber straight ahead, aiming for the shoulder Zero had left purposely unguarded, and completely overextended his reach. Zero ducked onto one knee and brought his saber up to clash against Omega's, preventing a follow-up cut downward. Then he fired his dash thrusters and shot forward, aiming a shoulder charge at chest height. He was rewarded with a loud thud and whoosh of air as his charging attack connected successfully, but was caught by surprise when Omega brought one of his knees up into Zero's gut. The end result of the entire exchange was that the two reploids tumbled across the ground in a pile of arms and legs, their sabers still twirling through the air wildly in the hopes that they hit something. After a few rolls they managed to disentangle themselves and retreat back a few feet, staring at each other from across the room.

_He took a hit on purpose so that I'd leave myself open to an attack - he doesn't care whether he gets hit or not. Either he's as insane as that sounds, or there's something else going on here that I'm not seeing._

"Zero, I know this may not be the best time to mention this, but what exactly is the plan here?" Prairie asked quietly. "If you start carving him up into little pieces there's no way you can use his body."

"I have a plan," Zero said, but didn't have time to elaborate further as Omega renewed his attacks, another insane grin plastered on his face.

"This is fun!" The demon reploid cried as he unleashed another lightning assault with his saber. "It's been so long since I fought anyone I'd almost forgotten how it felt to be caught in the heat of battle! To experience the thrill of being inches away from death! I'm eternally grateful that of all the people to find me down here it would be the only one who could pose such a challenge!" The purple saber whipped back and forth across Zero's vision, his own saber meeting and deflecting every attack with expert precision. "Isn't the irony wonderful? You came down here to kill me, yet I've never felt so alive!"

The two reploids finally separated once again, Zero standing calmly on one side while Omega panted with excitement on the other. "Come on Zero, you're better than this! I know you want to kill me, so stop screwing around and _kill me!_" Omega screamed.

"If I can get into physical contact with him I think I can forcibly begin the Megamerge process and transfer myself into his body," Zero explained quietly to Prairie, ignoring Omega's speech altogether. "The problem is that I can't do it while I'm connected to you."

"So what, you're going to try and stop him, somehow? How do you plan on doing that?"

"I'm going to start by pissing him off."

"Quit yapping to your girlfriend and fight me!" Omega screamed angrily when he noticed Zero and Prairie ignoring him, rushing forward again.

"But Prairie and I have to decide what color to paint our living room; if we wait until later one of us might be dead," Zero replied nonchalantly as he parried a blow aimed at his neck, countering with a quick jab that made Omega hop backward. "I was hoping for a nice taupe, myself,"

"No, I want fuschia!" Prairie argued, playing along. She wasn't quite sure what Zero was up to, but she trusted his judgement. "Taupe is too boring."

"I refuse to live in a pink house," Zero replied indignantly as he feinted high and left, then quickly pulled back and struck low, nearly clipping the outside of Omega's right leg. "Besides, taupe matches my hair."

"Would you two _shut up!_" Omega screamed, hacking madly at Zero with reckless abandon. But no matter how hard he tried, Zero's saber successfully deflected every one of his attacks. "Listening to you two babble on is so _infuriating!_"

"That's the point," Zero replied calmly, then he neatly sidestepped around Omega's next downward slash, brought his own blade down with one hand to pin Omega's against the ground, then used his free arm to deliver an elbow jab to the face, all in the blink of an eye. Omega was caught off-guard by the entire maneuver and took the blow full-force, stumbling back a few steps as his saber swung wildly to the side, leaving him open. Zero rushed forward and cut downward at Omega's arm, hoping to sever it completely before his opponent regained his balance - Zero could always reattach it later.

Omega recovered in time to deflect Zero's attack, but only barely. The purple saber swung across and knocked the green one aside, but not before it scored the crimson terror across the inside length of his arm. Not wanting to risk another follow-up, Zero held his position as Omega backed off.

"Oh my," Omega said, an odd look spreading over his face as he ran one finger along the inside of his wounded arm, dragging it through the blood that seeped from the wound and dripped onto the floor. "I haven't seen blood in over two hundred years. I prefer human blood, myself, but at this point even the sight of this fake stuff of my own is enough to get me excited."

Omega looked back at Zero, a knowing smile spreading across his lips. "That was clever of you, getting me angry enough that I got sloppy and let you hit me. Against anyone else, it might even have worked."

"Might have? It looks like it worked to me," Zero said, nodding toward the bleeding gash on Omega's arm. "Such an amateurish mistake, letting your emotions get in the way. Once again you prove how unworthy you are of your self-proclaimed title."

Omega chuckled. "Oh, how little you know. Do you honestly think a little scratch like this means anything to me? The pain makes me feel even more alive, and the blood makes me even more excited to gut you and spill yours. If you think the God of Destruction can be killed by a measly beam saber, then I can't wait to see the look on your face after I do this!"

Zero felt a sudden surge of energy from Omega and braced himself for impact, but there was no attack coming. Beams of blue energy suddenly shot straight up from the ground, encompassing Omega in a pillar of light. The beams began rotating slowly as Omega laughed hideously from within.

"What's he doing...?" Prairie said, confused.

"I'm not sure," Zero replied, equally at a loss as to what was going on. A few moments later he both heard and felt Prairie gasp in astonishment.

"Zero, look at his arm!" Which he did, and watched as the wound he'd inflicted a few moments before stopped bleeding, then slowly begin to close. "He's healing himself somehow!" "Not if I have anything to say about it," Zero replied, then dashed forward and slashed at the energy barrier, only to have his saber glance off harmlessly, much to Omega's amusement. He took a few more swipes, but each attack only succeeded in making the red maverick laugh even harder.

"Give it up, Zero! There's no energy weapon in the world strong enough to pass through this barrier! You'll just have to sit and watch while I fix myself up, then tremble in fear when I come at you again! There's nothing you can do to stop it. Why don't you just give up now?" His mouth slid into another one of his evil, arrogant smirks like the one that had been on his face when they'd first entered the room.

"Prairie, can you tell how he's doing that?" Zero asked.

"I think he's found some way of interfacing with the power systems of the Ragnarok," Prairie said, trying as hard as she could to keep the panic beginning to rise in the back of her thoughts out of her voice. "He's using the energy left in the wreckage to augment his regeneration capabilities, as well as create that energy barrier. I don't think he's exaggerating when he says you're not going to find an energy weapon capable of getting through it, and any physical material you stick in there is likely to disintegrate within seconds.

Zero growled menacingly as he stood only a few feet away from his nemesis, held back by the impenetrable barrier of light as Omega's arm slowly repaired itself. He wracked his brain for options, but kept coming up blank.

"You got any ideas?" Zero asked his companion, then quickly backed off several meters as he saw Omega's arm finish healing.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking," Prairie said.

"Still, you persist!" Omega chuckled to himself. "I admit, you're definitely a worthy opponent. Unfortunately, now that I've shown you my newest trick, I may as well show you the rest of them." The beams of light disappeared as abruptly as they'd appeared, leaving Omega standing alone in the center of the room. The jewel in his forehead gleamed brightly with a menacing light, and his eyes had changed from their usual white to a sinister reddish-orange. "The time for games is over. Prepare to face the full might of the God of Destruction!" With a swift downward motion of his right hand the purple beam saber extended itself once again, while a long, flowing mane of pale blond hair materialized at the base of his neck, blowing about in a nonexistent wind. "I am the Messiah! Come, Zero!"

From the first blow it was obvious Omega wasn't playing around any more. Zero's arm joints groaned under the pressure of the maniacal reploid's first powerful attack as he tried to overwhelm Zero's defenses with the sheer might of a charged saber attack. He grinned when he saw Zero struggling to match his power, then jumped and somersaulted over Zero's head, slashing all the way. Zero deflected each stroke as Omega flew overhead, then made a sideways swipe at Omega's midsection as he touched down again. Omega casually swept the blow aside with a one-handed parry, then held his other hand up a few feet away, with the palm facing Zero.

_That can't be good,_ Zero thought at the same moment his survival instincts screamed at him to move. Both premonitions proved correct as Zero spun to the left just as a plasma blast shot through the spot he'd just occupied. Before he could think about what had just happened Zero found himself pressed to stay alive once again as Omega unleashed a furious saber rush.

"I got tired of carrying your stupid buster pistol around, so I integrated it with my arm," Omega said as his blade flashed through the air, like he wasn't even paying attention to what he was doing. "It's much more convenient this way, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it's real nice," Zero replied, ducking under a slice aimed at his neck. He countered with an uppercut aimed at Omega's leg, but the crimson terror quickly hopped backward as Zero sailed into the air.

"Oh come on, don't be like that," Omega pretended to sound upset as he executed his own saber uppercut. As Zero reached the height of his jump he swung his saber down for a Skull Crush and the two blades collided with a bright flash of power. Unfortunately for Zero, Omega's upward momentum put enough extra power into his attack that he pushed Zero away as he continued to the apex of his jump, sending Zero spinning away through the air. In the short distance to the ground Zero managed to get himself turned upright, but fell to one knee as he landed. He then rolled nimbly to his left without even looking to see what was coming - his instincts proved correct once again as Omega crashed into the ground with a powerful downward stab a moment later, connecting with enough power that Zero could feel the floor shake beneath his boots.

"I thought about putting one in both hands, but decided the God of Destruction should be more creative than that," Omega thought aloud as he fired a pair of plasma blasts from one hand, then swept his saber upward with the other, releasing a blade of energy through the air. Zero dashed around the first two attacks, then leapt over the third, swinging downward with an extended saber as he did. Omega retreated with a small hail of buster shots from his palm, which Zero easily swept aside withi his enlarged saber before it dissipated.

"I see you've got some new tricks too," Omega remarked as he dashed forward again.

"A friend of mine taught it to me," Zero replied, then promptly turned and ran for the far wall of the room.

"Did he teach you how to run, too, you pathetic excuse for a warrior?" Omega yelled with disdain as he chased after his prey.

"Zero, I've got an idea," Prairie said abruptly. "See if you can get him to use his regeneration ability again."

"What do you think I've been trying to do?" Zero swerved left and right around the hail of plasma bullets Omega fired from his palm, then as soon as he reached the side of the room he jumped and continued running as far upward as gravity would allow. Just before he fell back to the ground he sent the power he'd been charging in his saber into his dash thrusters, then fired them at the same time that he pushed himself downward off the wall, his saber held out horizontally in front of him. Omega stopped dead in his tracks and threw his own weapon up to defend himself as Zero sped past him in a blur, but was caught by surprise when Zero abruptly switched directions upon touching the ground behind him, slicing across Omega's backside as the green flash shot past him. Sparks and metal flew into the air as part of Omega's chest armor was ripped apart, earning a wince from the injured reploid.

"Not bad, that one kind of hurt," Omega admitted grudgingly, but despite the injury his battle-crazed grin never faltered. "Anything else you'd like to try before I kill you?"

"Maybe." Zero punched the ground with his free hand and channeled the power he'd been storing into the ground, sending it through the floor in a burst, lighting the ground up with a green glow as it traveled to its target. Omega saw it coming, but simply smiled and held his ground as the glow reached him and exploded outward, blowing him off his feet in a blast of air and rock. He flew limply through the air for a few seconds before flipping around to land on his feet just before touching the ground.

"That was kind of neat, but a little weak." Omega raised his palm into the air, glowing with a bright white ball of energy. "You should try something more like this!" he yelled, then punched the ground with his fist. The white ball exploded into a rain of small plasma blasts that radiated out in every direction, a technique Zero immediately recognized from his own repertoire. He dodged sideways and slid between two of the shots, then slashed downward at Omega's purple saber as it tried to impale him through the stomach. The saber cut into the metal floor like butter, and Omega grinned as he pulled it back up as fast as he could and went into another saber uppercut. Zero dodged by jumping backward, but wasn't ready when Omega used his uppercut's momentum to do a complete backward somersault that sent a fanned-out wave of small energy blades in all directions.

_Finally, something original,_ Zero spared the time to think to himself._ I was getting tired of dodging all of my own attacks._

Zero swiftly dodged around the spread of blades and dashed to where Omega was going to land, preparing to hit the maverick with a charged attack as soon as he landed. However, as he brought his saber down in a powerful swing, he realized he'd forgotten something - instead of landing where Zero thought he would, Omega's dash thrusters fired as he did a mid-air jump, easily soaring over Zero's misplaced attack. Realizing he'd left himself completely open, Zero wildly threw himself to the side before Omega could impale him from above. He rolled across the ground for several meters before regaining his feet just in time to see a charged plasma blast heading straight for his face. He quickly rolled left then, knowing there were two more attacks coming, immediately rolled back to the right. Unfortunately for Zero, Omega had predicted Zero's pattern of dodging, and when Zero rolled to his feet he saw the arc of energy from Omega's saber only a few feet in front of him. Out of options, he threw his arms in front of his face to try and absorb as much of the damage as possible and keep the damage away from vital areas on Prairie's body.

As much as it hurt to feel the energy blade cut across his arms, what hurt Zero even more was the cry of pain that escaped Prairie's lips as the attack sent waves of intense pain through her entire body as her systems tried to deal with the sudden power surge. For the briefest instant it felt like her entire body was on fire and about to explode, then it was gone.

"Prairie, are you okay?" Zero asked worriedly. "I'm sorry, that was careless of me."

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," Prairie reassured him, panting for breath. "Concentrate on what you're doing."

"How pathetic!" Omega taunted from where he stood a few feet away, chuckling to himself. "You look like you're about to collapse after only the first hit! I guess that's what you get for fighting in that pathetic excuse for a body." He snorted derisively. "She's so scared she can't even keep her eyes open while we fight. I don't understand why you insist on clinging to a worthless, cowardly bitch like her."

Zero felt Prairie's eyes shoot open. "Did you just call me a coward?" She hissed between clenched teeth.

"Oh?" Omega said, raising an eyebrow. "Looks like I hit a nerve with that one. What're you gonna do now, lecture me?" Omega barked another laugh. "Face it, _bitch_; you're way out of your league."

"Don't let him get to you Prairie, he's just trying to make you angry." _And doing a damn good job of it too,_ Zero thought as he tried to get to his feet...and discovered that his inputs had been cut off. _Huh? What's going on?...Uh oh._ "Prairie, wait! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Showing this jackass what kind of bitch he's dealing with," Prairie growled angrily, then shot forward, her Z-Saber ready as Zero was dragged helplessly along for the ride.

"That's better!" Omega yelled, then raised his palm and unleashed the two plasma blasts, followed by another energy wave that ripped along the ground, tearing the floor of the room apart as it sped forward. Prairie jumped low over the first two attacks, then leapt high in the air over the third and extended her saber, coming down with a crash right beside Omega. The red maverick parried the overhead attack as he jumped backward, but Prairie didn't stop. She rushed after him and let loose with a fierce downward charged slash, which Omega also easily swept aside. Then his purple saber began to glow yellow with electricity as he thrust it at Prairie's head, aiming for a killing blow while her saber was down.

Prairie, however, was a lot faster than he gave her credit for. She simply cocked her head to the side as the electric blade shot past her head, coming within centimeters of her face as it sliced off a few strands of blonde hair. Surprised by the gutsiness of the move, Omega didn't expect it when Prairie then dashed forward shoulder-first, knocking him back a few steps. Fully expecting the girl to follow-up on her charge, Omega made a short jump backward to gain some distance, then raised his left hand to fire a few plasma bursts to distract his foe. Just before he fired, however, he barely managed to a glimpse of a flash of light coming toward him before the green blade of Prairie's Z-Saber sprouted from the back of his hand, sending a wave of pain shooting up his left arm as half the length of the weapon went completely through before it finally stopped.

With a roar of rage Omega ripped the Z-Saber from his hand, throwing it across the room angrily. "That was a dirty little trick, throwing your weapon at me," he snarled, his left arm hanging limply at his side - it obviously wasn't going to be much use anymore. "But now that you've successfully disarmed yourself, I'd like to know how you plan on stopping me from tearing you apart!" Rather than taking the time to regenerate the arm and thus allow Prairie time to recover her sword, Omega instead rushed forward to slice his unarmed opponent to ribbons.

With a determined look on her face Prairie stood her ground, earning a grin from Omega. "At least you meet your end like a true warrior!" He yelled as he slashed downward across her chest, only to have his attack stopped by the Z-Saber that had reappeared in Prairie's hands.

"Looks like you have a few things to learn about fighting Biometals," she said with a smirk, holding Omega's blade back with her own in a battle of strength. "I can dismiss and re-materialize my sword whenever I feel like it." She shoved Omega's sword away, her two arms easily overpowering his one. "Neat little trick, don't you think?"

_Clever girl,_ Zero thought to himself. _She was paying attention while I fought with Ashe and Aile. I never would have thought to do that...I guess I'm still not used to the whole 'materialization' thing._

"Grrr...time to end this!" Omega snarled, anger pulsing in his blood-red eyes as he unleashed a furious saber rush. Even with only one hand the purple saber flew through the air like a lightning bolt, each blow aimed to kill.

Even Zero was surprised with how well Prairie handled the Z-Saber, easily deflecting each strike as she looked for the opportunity to launch a counterattack - it was exactly what he would have done in her situation. He could only image what Prairie would be capable of if she could actually Megamerge with him.

After exchanging dozens of lightning-quick blows, Prairie saw her chance. As Omega knelt down and prepared a slashing uppercut she hopped backward just out of range. Omega's attack shot right past the front of her face as he jumped into the air, barely missing her nose. Before the red reploid's attack was finished Prairie jumped into the air after him and did a Rolling Slash. His saber still held upward from his uppercut, Omega had no way to defend himself as Prairie sliced at his chestplate from below, the rapid, weak slashes leaving several gouges in his armor. Momentarily stunned at being so badly outmaneuvered, Omega fell limply backward to land on his feet, but Prairie was waiting for him. Before Omega realized what was happening Prairie did a triple slash, taking Omega across the chest, across the top of his left leg, then across his chest again, from one shoulder clear through to his thigh.

The crimson reploid stumbled backward and fell to one knee, blood pouring out of the wounds inflicted by Prairie's furious assault. "Why you little..." He began, but Prairie wasn't finished. Mimicking one of Zero's attacks from earlier, she diverted a burst of charged energy from her saber into her dash thrusters, then held her saber out in front of her horizontally as she shot past the wounded maverick, slicing him across his already heavily damaged chest armor before coming to a halt beside the wall behind him. Then she pushed off the wall and into the air, her dash power giving out as she reached a point in the air a short distance above Omega, her saber aimed directly at his back as she plummeted downward.

A brief flash of surprise appeared on Omega's face as the glowing blade of Prairie's saber abruptly sprouted from his chest, followed a few moments later by a small cough that sent a splatter of blood onto the floor.

"Not bad," the maverick choked out around a grin, "but now I've got you."

Something about being a biometal allowed Zero to sense Omega's buildup of energy before he could unleash it, giving him a few extra seconds warning of what was about to happen. "Prairie, get back!"

Without hesitation Prairie did as Zero told her, just barely avoiding being caught by the bright pillars of light that shot up around Omega as he activated his regeneration ability and the protective barrier that went with it. Prairie stopped a few feet away from the impressive lightshow as Omega turned around, still grinning.

"If you'd be so kind as to wait a minute or so, I'll be right with you," he said mockingly as he wiped blood away from his mouth.

"Okay, what's your plan, Prairie?" Zero asked, ignoring Omega's taunt.

"Get ready!" She replied, then Zero abruptly found himself resting in the palm of her hand as a biometal.

"Prairie, I don't think I like where this is going," Zero said. "What are you-"

"Now!" Prairie yelled as she grasped the biometal tightly in her hand, then thrust her arm through the spinning barrier of lights. Zero heard her grunt in pain as her arm tried to withstand the forces tearing at it, but even as pieces of her synthetic skin began to boil and peel off she continued pushing her arm further towards Omega, clenching her teeth against the agony of it all.

"What are you trying to do?" Omega said, just as Zero felt himself come into contact with something warm and hard - Omega's chest, which had been left completely exposed by Prairie's attacks, and hadn't yet begun to regenerate.

"Now, Zero!" Prairie's yell turned into a screech as parts of her arm began to break off and vaporize in the potent energy field.

As much as he didn't want to leave Prairie alone with Omega for any length of time, and despite the fact that he didn't even know what was going to happen if he tried to Megamerge with the insane maverick, Zero didn't have much of a choice. All he could do was cross his imaginary fingers and hope for the best.

_I trust you, Prairie. Don't die on me._

"Megamerge!"

* * *

As soon as Zero's biometal disappear from her hand Prairie was blown away by a sudden burst of force that shot out from Omega in every direction. She stumbled back until her back hit the wall, her left arm dangling uselessly at her side. She quickly severed all the connections from her central processor to her injured limb, gasping in relief as the searing pain from her partially-vaporized nerve endings suddenly disappeared. Her arm was nothing but dead weight now.

_I'll just have to deal with it until I can get it replaced at Cygnus Base. It was a small price to pay to get Zero in there._

The question was, had he been successful? She didn't think that Zero had sounded too certain his plan to force a Megamerge would work. In normal cases it definitely wouldn't, but hardly anything about Zero's current situation was normal, and any plan involving Omega was probably going to be unconventional - the crimson reploid himself defied the laws of modern robotics in almost every way imaginable, despite being created over two centuries ago. There was no way to predict how the Megamerging process would interact with Omega's systems, but she trusted that Zero wouldn't have brought the idea up if he didn't think it stood at least a small chance of succeeding.

Prairie prepared to defend herself as the spinning lights of Omega's energy shield faded from view, expecting the worst. But rather than taunting or attacking her, Omega began stumbling aimlessly around the room without so much as looking in her direction. His eyes were squeezed shut as he clutched his head in both hands, completely disoriented. The red maverick eventually lost his balance and fell unceremoniously to his knees. He began pounding the ground first with one fist, then the other, then with both together. Even from where she stood a dozen feet away Prairie could feel the floor vibrating from the force of the blows.

With a primeval roar and one final smash of his fists Omega was finally motionless, his face turned towards the ground as he rested on his knees and forearms. In the utter silence of the room Prairie could hear him panting, the only sign that he was even alive.

"Zero?" Prairie said cautiously, keeping her distance. "Are you there?"

The arrogant chuckle she got in reply was evidence enough that he wasn't. "An easy question to ask, but a hard one to answer." Omega slowly pushed himself to his feet and looked up at Prairie, his sinister red-orange eyes still glowing above the ever-present grin. He patted himself on the chest, then examined his left hand. "Well, everything seems to be in working order now. Now, where were we?"

"What did you do to Zero? Where is he?!"

"What do you mean? I'm right here," Omega said with a flourish. "If you mean what happened to that thing living inside your magic rock - biometal, I think you called it? - then I'm afraid you're out of luck. And now that he's gone, that means I'm the only Zero left. Isn't that just wonderful?"

"Liar!" Prairie shouted angrily. "Even if Zero _were_ gone, there's no way a merciless maverick like you, who's slaughtered millions of people and reploids for no reason other than he felt like it, could possibly take his place!"

"Oh, because the original Zero was such a _saint_," Omega snickered. "You don't know him half as well as you think you do."

"What are you talking about? I've known Zero longer than anyone alive! And even before I met him, everyone knew the stories about how he and X saved humanity from you during the Elf Wars, and from the Sigma Virus even before that!"

"Oh, you're right, that's all true," Omega said, then smirked. "But do you know what happened before _that?"_

"What do you mean? Zero was created to be a Maverick Hunter, everyone knows that."

Omega cackled mischievously. "Oh, is that how they wrote it down? What a load of crap. Well, let me fill you in on a little secret. You know how Zero - wait, that's me now, isn't it? - you know how I was always whining about having to kill so many innocent reploids during the Maverick Wars because they'd been infected? Well, they weren't always infected, you know. Quite the opposite, actually - I was the one who was infected. _I_ was the maverick, not them!"

"Zero was...a maverick?" Prairie said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I don't believe you!"

"It doesn't matter if you believe me or not, it won't change the truth. But that's not all. I'm not just _any_ maverick, you see." Omega motioned upward, indicating the world above. "Everyone up there thinks that bald ass-face Sigma was the cause of the maverick virus because that's the crap the Hunters fed them. In reality, Sigma wasn't the cause at all; he was simply a casualty with an ego. He was infected in a duel with a certain reploid, a merciless killer that had been left behind by an insane old genius from the twentieth century." Omega jabbed a thumb at himself. "_Me! I _am the true source of the maverick virus! Even today I can still feel it pulsing in my chest, like a second heartbeat, waiting to be unleashed.

"But even before Sigma found me I'd already killed thousands of people, just because I wanted to. Oh yes, I can remember it clearly, even if that copy of me didn't want to. The feel of blood from a fresh kill trickling between your fingers is quite intoxicating; I can't wait until I'm free of this wretched hole so I can experience it again.

"So, what do you think of your precious Zero now? Now that you know that this bloodthirsty grin of mine is his true face, and the caring, gentle one you're so used to seeing is the fake, do you still believe in him? In _me?_"

"Shut up!" Prairie yelled furiously. "I don't care what you say! I don't care if what you're saying is true, that Zero was a killer and the source of the maverick virus, or anything else! You may be the original form of Zero, but he's changed in ways that someone like you can never understand! He's a kind, caring person who will fight to the end to protect the people important to him! He's a friend, a warrior, a hero, and most importantly-" Prairie pointed an accusing finger at Omega "-he's _not you!"_

Omega was silent for a moment as Prairie glared at him, then shrugged. "All right then," he said casually. "I guess this means you'll have the opportunity to know what it feels like to be gutted by your precious 'hero'." Then the purple saber flared to life in his right hand as he rushed forward, his ever-present maniacal grin filling Prairie's vision.

* * *

As soon as Zero regained awareness he opened his eyes, prepared for whatever attacks Omega might have ready to send at him, but all saw was an infinite darkness surrounding him on all sides. Looking down, he could see his own body clearly as he flexed his fingers, so it wasn't that he couldn't see; there was nothing around him to see. It was a lot like how he felt whenever he was inside a biometal, simply a different color.

"Feels strange, doesn't it?" Omega's voice echoed from everywhere around him. "To have so much power, yet be trapped inside this useless metal cage. I've spent years trying to find a way out, but here I continue to sit and rot." The air vibrated as the voice chuckled. "But soon, I'll be free. Now that you've opened the door I'll rip my way out of this underground cage and into the Cyberworld. From there I'll be free to do whatever I please. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"Where are you, Omega?!" Zero yelled into the blackness. "Stop being a coward and face me!"

The chuckle resounded again, genuinely amused. "What do you mean, where am I? You're inside of me; I'm everywhere."

The air above abruptly shattered into a million tiny shards of what appeared to be glass, revealing what looked like the ceiling of a house of mirrors, with each of the dozens of 'mirrors' reflecting the grinning image of Omega's - Zero's - face. The mirrors then spread down the sides of his vision, continuing to form until they seemed to surround Zero in a sphere, with him at its center.

"Stop trying to play mind games with me," Zero growled, drawing his Z-Saber. "It's not going to work!"

Another amused laugh. "Mind games? You don't get it, do you? This whole place _is_ a mind game, and it's inside of _my_ mind! Since you apparently fail to understand the implications of that, allow me to demonstrate."

Zero suddenly felt searing pain rip the breath from his lungs as the very air around him burst into flame, scorching the artificial skin from his mechanical frame. His knees buckled beneath him, but instead of falling to the ground he simply hovered helplessly in the air as the flames repeatedly lashed against his body, like a giant whip.

"Do you get it now?" Omega shouted triumphantly. "This is my world! You're trapped in my mind, where I make the rules; I control who lives and who dies! In here, I am the most powerful being in existence! And soon, I will be in the real world as well! The God of Destruction will rise again!"

Zero continued to writhe helplessly in pain as Omega's laugh echoed through his mind. He tried to block out the pain and concentrate, but every time he erected a mental barrier the pain intensified until it shattered. Unable to think clearly, Zero was helpless as the world seemed to explode around him over and over again.

"Ah, this was almost worth the centuries I've spent imprisoned in this forsaken hole! The famous Hunter Zero lies at my mercy while his girlfriend futilely fights for her life against the very person who was supposed to be protecting her! Here, would you like to see?"

All of the images of Omega's face blinked out and were replaced by the figure of Prairie, as seen through the eyes of Omega. Her back was up against a wall, a panicked but determined look in her eyes as Omega slowly advanced on her.

"Prairie!" Zero cried as he reached for her, but then he crumpled with a scream as Omega fired another burst of pain through his body.

"Oh, this is magnificent!" Omega yelled happily. "There's nothing you can do to help her, so stop trying! But since I'm being so kind as to give you a front row seat to your little girlfriend's death, why don't you just sit back and enjoy the show!"

* * *

Despite Prairie's best efforts to dodge, her deadweight arm combined with a lack of a weapon meant it was only a matter of time before Omega managed to corner her. She had been hoping to buy Zero enough time to take control of Omega's body - despite what he said, Prairie still believed Zero was alive in there, somewhere - but it was starting to look like her time had run out as she found herself trapped against the wall with Omega walking slowly towards her, his saber extended.

"Is that all you've got?" Omega said, disappointed. "Pity, I was having fun chasing you around. All good things must come to an end, I suppose."

With Omega's saber on the left, the logical choice for Prairie to make would be to duck to the right - but Omega knew that too, so he'd be ready for it. Rather than dash straight into his trap, Prairie took a gamble and, with a mighty push off the wall behind her, jumped over Omega's head, gambling on the surprise factor to let her get past him before he stopped her.

"We'll have none of that now," Omega said as he jumped up and grabbed Prairie's ankle just as she passed overhead, then threw her violently back into the wall. Before she could even fall to the floor Omega thrust his saber through her limp and disabled shoulder, painlessly pinning her against the wall with her feet dangling a few inches off the ground. She tried to reach over and take the saber out, but suddenly Omega's other hand was wrapped tightly around her neck, choking her.

"Looks like this might be the end for you, little missy." Omega's face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her face. "But you know what? I _could_ kill you right now, but since you've lost the protection of your little magic rock, I think infecting you will be much more satisfying."

Prairie had always imagined being infected by the maverick virus was a painful experience, but the reality proved to be quite the opposite. She found that her head began to feel heavy, like it was full of lead. Her eyesight blurred until she couldn't even see Omega's face anymore, despite it being only inches away from her. Her hearing dulled to the point where Omega's hideous laughter sounded like it was coming from the far end of a large tunnel, and she had something wedged in both ears. She suddenly felt very tired and her eyes began to drift closed of their own accord, no matter how hard she tried to keep them open. It was almost like she wasn't in control of her own body anymore, simply an outsider looking in...

An image flashed across Prairie's vision, so blurry she couldn't tell rightly what it was - it was mostly yellow and blue, with what looked like a smear of red in it somewhere. Immediately after it disappeared she felt more than saw Omega flinch backward, his eyes squeezed shut against something.

"Gah!" The crimson maverick said, shaking his head. "What the...what is _she_ doing in there?" He growled menacingly. As Prairie's sensed returned to normal, she definitely thought he seemed angry at something. Was it whatever was in that image? How had he seen it? She tried as hard as she could to remember what it was, but it was no use - she'd been too far out of it, and it had flashed by too quickly.

"Why is she _always _getting in my way?!" Omega yelled in frustration. His eyes shot open in a glare, directed straight at Prairie. "Fine then! If she won't let me infect you, I'll just have to kill you after all!"

Then he began to squeeze.

_

* * *

"Prairie!"_ Zero managed to scream as he saw Omega's hand close tighter once again, panic appearing in Prairie's eyes as Omega slowly squeezed the air from her lungs...

...and then a very strange thing happened.

Time seemed to come to a halt as every image of Prairie being choked to death was abruptly replaced with the blurry image of a small woman in a red coat, her blonde ponytail blowing in a gentle breeze as she stood in a field of yellow flowers. The sun hung high in the clear blue sky, making the entire scene look very picturesque.

_What the hell?_

The woman turned around, but her face was obscured by her hair as it blew in the wind, preventing Zero from getting a good look at her. Despite being rather small for a human, she seemed to be everywhere. No matter where he looked she filled his view, as though she were the only important thing in the entire world. He tried to see her face, but no matter how he twisted his head to get a different angle, all he could manage was a glimpse of her mouth, the corners turned up in a small, peaceful smile. Still, somehow he could tell she was looking straigh at him from beneath her blowing hair, and somehow he knew that smile was meant just for him.

_I've seen that smile somewhere before..._

It was just then that he noticed the searing pain that had been lancing through his body was gone, replaced with a refreshing, peaceful feeling. He couldn't explain why, but he felt like he was somehow stronger than he'd been a moment ago. It didn't really make much sense, but then again, neither did anything else that was going on at the moment.

The woman's lips moved as though she were speaking, and even though no sound came out of them, Zero could hear the words in his mind. "What are you waiting for, Zero?" She teased, as though he were missing something obvious.

"What do you mean?" He asked, confused. "I made a mistake, coming in here. Now I'm trapped in Omega's mind and he can do whatever he wants. What else can I possibly do?"

A lighthearted laugh escaped her lips. "But that's just it, don't you see? You _are_ Omega." She reached out and flicked him lightly on the forehead, and suddenly he understood.

"I...am Omega...huh. Yeah, I get it now." He nodded to himself, then chuckled. "I can't believe I missed something so obvious. Can't see the forest for the trees, I guess." He returned the smile with one of his own, a smile he'd never once given her - a fact he had always regretted. "Thanks."

"That's what I'm here for. Now, stop letting him win. There's someone out there who believes in you, and I'll never forgive you if you abandon her now." Then the woman turned away, the edges of her mouth still curved into the smile as she walked off into the sea of flowers. Zero simply stood and watched as she began to slowly fade away, followed shortly afterward by the disappearance of clear blue sky and bright yellow blossoms...

...leaving behind the sphere of mirrors showing the image of Prairie held up against the wall as Omega slowly choked her to death.

"What the hell...?" Omega said as soon as time began to flow again and he realized that Zero was, for some reason, no longer writhing in pain. Instead, he stood calmly in the center of the sphere of mirrors, his eyes closed in concentration. "How did you...nevermind, it doesn't matter! Prepare to feel pain like you've never experienced before!"

Zero remained calm and kept his eyes closed, and soon discovered he could see Omega's wave of flames before they even appeared. Zero reached out with his mind and, without really understanding what he was doing, he...twisted something.

The flames leapt into existence all around him, but while Zero was aware of their existence, he didn't feel them at all. The fire licked at his boots and clawed at his eyes, but he felt nothing. He reached out and twisted again - he wasn't really twisting anything, but that was as close as he could get to describing it - and the flames vanished as abruptly as they'd appeared.

Next, Zero could feel dozens of atomically-sharp blades of...well, not air, but _something_, coming at him from several different directions at once. It was a simple matter for Zero to simply change their direction, sending them careening off into the darkness.

Several more intangible attacks materialized, each more deadly than the last, but Zero easily batted them aside or simply let them wash over him, each one as ineffective as the ones before. No matter what Omega sent at him, Zero remained completely unphased as he calmly stood his ground.

"What's going on?!" Omega screamed in frustration. His voiced seemed to come from everywhere in the darkness, but if Zero concentrated hard enough, he could just barely make out the source - no, sources - of the voice. "What did you do? Why can't I touch you anymore?!"

"I didn't _do_ anything," Zero replied casually. "I just realized the truth of what's going on here, that's all."

"What do you mean, the truth?"

"You said it yourself: I'm trapped inside your mind. But you forgot, this is my mind too. I am the original God of Destruction, and my body recognizes its true owner. All of your power is meaningless, because in here, I can do everything you can.

"Don't you get it, Omega? _I am you!_"

Just as he finished speaking, Prairie's foot suddenly filled all of the screens surrounding him before they all abruptly went blank. "What's wrong? Don't want me to see you getting beaten by my girlfriend?" Zero taunted his power-crazed opponent with a grin. "There's only one way to get rid of me now, and that's to fight me yourself. Now stop hiding and face me!"

"...Hmph. Fine. However, since I'm still the one in control of this body, I think I'll kill _her_ first. You'll have to wait your turn."

Zero sighed. "I guess I'll have to pull you out myself then."

All of the screens surrounding Zero shattered into a million fragments, which then swirled through the air on an unseen wind. After a few moments they began to converge on a point a few feet in front of Zero, the cloud of particles becoming thicker by the second. Soon a distinctly humanoid form began to emerge from the cloud, which then solidified into the body of Omega, his eyes closed. Zero waited patiently until Omega opened his eyes and looked at him, the rage and hate burning in them even more fiercely than the flames that had ravaged Zero a few moments ago.

"Enough!" Omega snarled. "It's time to end this! I'll rip out your heart with my bare hands at the same time I crush the life out of her! No one can stand against the God of Destruction! _No one!_"

"Agreed!"

* * *

Prairie could feel the moment when Omega seemed to space out, his grip on her throat loosening ever so slightly. She had no idea what was going on, but she took advantage of the situation and planted her boot right in his face. To her surprise, not only did Omega release his stranglehold on her as he fell backward, but he continued on to land face-first on the floor.

_I didn't think I kicked him that hard...not that I'm complaining._

As Prairie gasped for breath, Omega slowly pushed himself back to his feet. "You'll pay for that, you little...ugh!" Omega was interrupted when one of his arms abruptly collapsed beneath him, sending him sprawling back to the floor. "Dammit, what the hell..."

"Looks like you're having a little trouble controlling yourself, Omega!" Prairie yelled. "Maybe there's something distracting you? Zero's still fighting you in there, isn't he?!"

Omega finally managed to get back to his feet and immediately put on another of his arrogant grins. "All right, maybe Zero is still kicking somewhere in here. But I guarantee you, he's not going to last much longer, not that it should matter to you. You should be more worried about how long _you're_ going to last, because now you've gone and pissed me off!"

Omega lunged towards Prairie, his saber extended, but it was incredibly sloppy. Even without anything to defend herself with Prairie managed to dodge out of the way and gain some distance before Omega could even manage to turn himself around.

"I told you, as long as there's breath left in this body, I'll still believe in him! Fight him, Zero! I know you can do it!"

* * *

Zero nimbly ducked under Omega's right hook, then countered an uppercut with enough force to send Omega flying through the air. Zero jumped up after him and followed up with a spin-kick to the chest, knocking the red maverick backward through the featureless black space that served as their dueling ground. Omega hit the ground hard and bounced, but then entered a roll and landed on his feet. A small trickle of blood came out of his mouth - not that either of them actually had blood at the moment, but it happened all the same.

"You might have gotten me once or twice in here, but your little girlfriend isn't doing nearly as well outside," Omega sneered as he wiped the corner of his mouth. "But then, what did you expect? You left her alone in a room with the most powerful reploid in existence without so much as a weapon to defend herself with. You should be grateful, I'm doing you a favor by letting her live for more than a few seconds."

"What happens to Prairie doesn't matter." Zero kept his voice carefully neutral. He knew Omega was lying, but that didn't mean he wasn't concerned about her - he just couldn't let Omega know that. "All that's important is that I kill you, here and now, and Prairie knows that. She knew what she was getting herself into and I trust her to stay alive until I can finish the job."

There was a moment of silence as the two reploids regarded each other across the darkness, then Omega laughed. "You're even more full of it than I am!" He yelled. "I almost know you better than I know myself; you think I can't tell when you're lying? Well then, since you claim you don't care about her, I'll just take the liberty of describing in painstaking detail every little mark I make on that beautiful body of hers. I wouldn't want you to die without having an accurate mental picture of her, after all." He faked a gasp. "Oops! I think I just broke one of her legs off. How was I supposed to know they didn't bend that way? She looks kinda funny, hopping around like-"

Omega's taunt was interrupted by Zero's fist smashing into his cheek so fast that he hadn't even seen it coming, snapping his head to the side. The red maverick smiled, then retaliated with a punch of his own. "Uh oh, looks like I hit a soft spot after all!" He jeered.

Zero didn't give him the pleasure of a rebuttal, concentrating instead on trying to separate Omega's head from his shoulders.

_Just hold on a little longer, Prairie..._

* * *

At first Prairie was hard pressed to dodge Omega's saber assault, but over time she discovered that he seemed to be getting slower and slower. She began to think that, if she still had two arms to work with, she might even have attempted a serious counterattack.

Omega was in mid-swing when Prairie saw his head suddenly jerk to the right for no explainable reason, causing his swipe to go completely wild. Prairie took advantage of the opportunity and jumped into the air, then kicked Omega in the chest as hard as she could with both feet. She caught herself on her one remaining arm as she fell to the ground and watched Omega stumble backward, nearly dropping his saber.

"You're not looking so good, Omega!" Prairie taunted as she hastily got back to her feet. Her kick hadn't really done any damage to the heavily armored reploid, but it certainly made her feel much better. "Zero's winning in there, isn't he?"

"Shut up! What do you know?!" Omega snarled frantically. "Be a good little girl and die already!"

As the fight dragged on for minutes Prairie found more and more opportunities to strike. Sometimes it was because of Omega's increasingly slower movements and sloppy attacks, and sometimes it was due to more of the seemingly random and completely unexplainable seizures that periodically struck the disoriented maverick - Prairie's best guess was that they had something to do with Zero as the two battled for control inside of Omega's body. Either way, even with only one arm and no weapon, Prairie was eventually dodging circles around her opponent, delivering swift kicks and punches whenever she got the chance.

_There's nothing else I can do out here, Zero. You've got to finish this. You can do it, I know you can! I believe in you!_

* * *

Hook jab dodge duck jab feint dodge jab hook _**SMACK!**_

"Son of a..." Omega cursed as he picked himself up off the ground. "I"ll get you for that!"

Zero carefully hid the surprise on his face; he hadn't expected to hit Omega with that last punch. It was like he'd involuntarily thrown himself into it at the last second, making the impact even harder than Zero had intended.

_He's been acting funny for a while now; not dodging when I'd expect him to and lurching around suddenly. I wonder if it has anything to do with Prairie?_

He decided that was probably the case as he started dodging around another flurry of blows, throwing in his own counters to buy himself time to think. _If Prairie is distracting him enough that he's running his face into my fist on a regular basis, maybe I can materialize a saber and hit him with it before he has time to dissipate it. _That would certainly bring a quick end to their duel. The trick was to notice one of Omega's spasms in time to carry out his plan.

He didn't have to wait long. As Zero dodged to the side of a fierce right punch, Omega seemed to loose his balance and stumble forward. Zero quickly imagined a saber and felt it immediately appear in his hands, a sword made completely of his own internal data. Hoping Omega was sufficiently distracted, he swung the blade around full force, aiming at Omega's neck as he stumbled past.

Events seemed to unfold in slow motion as Omega's body twisted around to face his opponent, only to see the green saber blade cut cleanly through his neck. A surprised look spread across his face as his head separated from his body and sailed through the air, bouncing twice before coming to rest. His body fell limply to the ground, shattering to into millions of tiny glass shards like the mirrors had done before. Zero could see now that it was simply a visual representation of data being purged from his system...Omega's data.

His face an unreadable mask, Zero strode over to where Omega's head lay silently.

_It's time to finish this._

* * *

Prairie tensed her legs and flung herself upward out of her roll, sending herself as far through the air as possible to give her the bet chance of avoiding Omega's retaliatory strike for the kick she'd just planted in his face. She almost stumbled and fell, however, when Omega suddenly let out an ear-piercing scream. She barely managed to catch herself and whirl around to see the red maverick clutch his head with both hands and collapse in a pile, like all of the metal in his body had suddenly turned to jelly.

The wailing continued to rise steadily in pitch as Omega's spasms became increasingly frantic. Just as Prairie felt like her aural sensors were about to overload, it all stopped just as suddenly as it had started; Omega's arms fell limply to his sides as his body went completely motionless. From where Prairie stood, it looked like he was dead. She continued to stand at a distance, however, in case it was some elaborate trick to fool her into lowering her guard.

After a short period of silence, Omega - or was it Zero now? - finally stirred. He put one hand beneath him and slowly lifted himself off the ground, eventually getting onto one knee while his other leg remained stretched out on the ground behind him.

"Zero?" Prairie said tentatively.

"Ugh...Prairie? Is that you?" It definitely sounded like Zero. "Am I...am I back? Where are you?" His eyes remained fixed on the ground in front of him.

"I'm right here," she said, taking a few careful steps forward. "What's wrong? You can't see?"

"I beat Omega, but I haven't quite regained control of all of my subsystems yet," Zero said, shaking his head. "My hearing's a little fuzzy, and my left leg doesn't seem to want to work. I can't seem to move my other arm, either. I think...I should be fine in a few minutes." He seemed to be struggling to even speak.

"Zero? Are you sure Omega's gone? Have we...did we really...?"

She could see a smile on Zero's face, even though his eyes remained trained on the ground beneath him. "Yeah, it's just me in here. We did it, Prairie."

"Zero!" She exclaimed in relief as she rushed forward to help him up.

As soon as she drew near, Zero's hand suddenly shot up and grabbed onto Prairie's arm. Suddenly realizing that she'd made the worst mistake of her life, she tried to pull back, but Zero's - no, Omega's hand refused to budge. Then his head came up and looked her straight in the eye, the pulsing red in his eyes and the wicked grin on his face clear evidence that he knew he'd won.

"Got you."

* * *

As it hung helplessly from Zero's hand, the head of Omega started to cackle maniacally. "Well, looks like it's my turn to laugh," he said.

"Shut up and die," Zero replied.

"It's actually quite a pity that you can't see the irony," Omega continued anyway. "Weil brought the entire world to its knees, but in the end he could never touch you. So even though I've been shut away from the world for over two centuries, I've managed to cause you more pain and suffering in the space of minutes than he did in years! Go ahead, take your wretched body back. Enjoy the despair that the cost of your victory brings!"

"I thought I told you to shut up and die," Zero said flatly, then changed the saber in his hand into a Buster and fired. Omega's head shattered like the rest of his body had, thousands of reflective shards dissolving into the black nothingness without a sound.

Without wasting any more time, Zero glanced around at the blackness around him to try and orient himself. He'd just destroyed most of Omega's programming, but there were still several traces of him left behind; non-sentient routines and processes running that he had to eliminate before he could take control of his body again.

"Time for a memory purge," he said aloud to no one in particular, then raised his hands and shattered the world.

Omega - or maybe Weil, or even a combination of the two - had placed layers upon layers of defensive barriers in Zero's body to protect it from outsiders, several of which the M.E.G.A. system had bypassed to get Zero to where he was now. Without Omega's consciousness here to operate them, however, they all sat idly by while Zero brushed them aside, then deleted them completely after he was past them. Each time he did the scenery around him shattered into glass, revealing another scene representing another layer of protection behind it. First it was a fiery, erupting volcano, followed by a fierce blizzard in the middle of an ice drift. There was no logical pattern to the scenes, but they all carried a few common themes: desolation, destruction, and in the case of one grisly scene of a battlefield from the Elf War, death.

_He was so obsessed with death, even in his own mind he surrounded himself with it._

Eventually there were only two sectors in his systems remaining with their defenses intact. Just a cursory glance of the first told him what it was - or rather, reminded him. The barriers around that section hadn't been made by Omega, or even Weil - they'd been placed there long before either of them had ever existed, to protect the world from the terror that lurked inside Zero's body. Not for the first time since embarking on this plan Zero asked himself if letting that..._thing _back into the outside world was a good idea, but it was too late to turn back now. There was nothing left to do but forge ahead. He'd just have to be careful. _Very_ careful.

He swept away the few remaining layers of Omega's programming protecting the final section of his subconscious and entered.

Inside, he found himself standing in a pure white room - just like the inside of a biometal. It seemed to be the blank slate representing a biometal's - or in this case, a reploid's mind. The difference in this case was that the room wasn't empty. In the center of the enclosure was a lone, familiar capsule, with a multitude of exposed wires leading down into the floor. Zero's footsteps reverberated through the silent air as he walked over to the front of the capsule and looked inside, already knowing what waited there.

Inside lay the frame and exposed innards of a half-finished reploid, like the creator had abandoned the job halfway through. Regardless of its poorly-kept state, however, the reploid seemed to be functioning perfectly. That was because it wasn't a reploid, but a visual representation of the barest core of Omega's programming, the part responsible for making his body operate. To use an antiquated term, it was the the ones and zeroes. It possessed no thought or emotion, being merely a collection of digital directives and procedures responsible for carrying out the will of the consciousness - which Zero had just finished obliterating a few moments ago. Now it was simply sitting there in silence, waiting for a command that wasn't coming.

Even with all of its wires lying exposed inside the capsule, the shape of the frame still brought memories back. Zero could picture the red-finned helmet on the head, with square white shoulder guards on either side of a bright red chestpiece. He remembered the white-gloved hands sticking out of the red forearm gauntlets and the black reinforced fabric on the joints to allow for maximum flexibility while also providing a minimal amount of protection. He almost cringed at the memory of the massive red legplates that extended all the way into the boots - damn those had been heavy. If there was one thing he hadn't missed when Ciel woke him up that fateful day in the lab, it was lugging around twenty pounds of metal on each foot. _Although, they had been rather stylish._ He couldn't help but smirk at that thought.

Suddenly the reploid's eyes snapped open and the head turned to look at him, its gaze instantly locking onto Zero's eyes. There was no remorse or mercy in its dead eyes, but neither was there fear. In fact, there was no was emotion at all. Despite all the atrocities Omega had committed using this body, it remained completely unaware of the immorality of all the pain it had caused. It had no sense of 'right' or 'wrong'. Living things were simply another form of data, and interacting with them was this body's purpose. As far as it was concerned, the only difference between saving a life and taking one was which directives it executed.

_Whether this thing really deserves to die or not is a question I'll leave up to greater minds than mine,_ Zero thought resolutely. _I have a job to do, and it's in my way. Time to take back what's mine._

The final fragment of the reploid persona known as Omega stared blankly ahead as Zero raised his fist in a simple gesture, with one finger pointing forward and his thumb sticking straight up.

"Bang."

* * *

"Biolink established. M.E.G.A. system online." Even as he heard himself say it, Zero knew something was wrong. He opened his eyes and Prairie's face immediately filled his vision, only inches away from his nose. "Prairie...?"

"Zero...is it really you...this time?" She whispered, smiling weakly. Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to keep them from sliding shut. "I'm...glad..."

"Prairie? What's wrong? Why do you sound so..."

"I'm sorry Zero, but I'm afraid I made a little mistake." Her mouth went lax and her eyes dropped shut as her head fell limply to the side. Zero could feel her hands release the grip on his arm that he hadn't even noticed yet. He could also feel something oddly warm on his hand. He looked away from Prairie's face to investigate...

Zero's mouth dropped open and his eyes went wide at the sight of his own arm buried elbow-deep in Prairie's chest, her reploid blood and fluids dripping off his arm and onto the ground. He also realized he could feel his fingers touching air on the opposite side - Omega had put his fist straight through her chest.

The red maverick's final words rang in his mind as he started to panic. It had never really clicked in his brain what it would mean to have Prairie die, never really seemed like it was something he'd actually have to deal with. It just couldn't happen.

"This can't be real. This can't be happening." Zero squeezed his eyes shut and tried to shake away the horrible sight in front of him, to no avail: the image would be burned into his memory for the rest of his life, and even beyond that. "I'm still in Omega's mind, this is just another one of his tricks. There's no way this can be real." Even as he said it he knew how fake it sounded, but it was all he had left to hope for.

"No Zero, this is real...I'm real...I'm here," Prairie mumbled. "But...this is really uncomfortable...if you could put me down..."

Realizing that he was just standing there holding Prairie up by her innards, Zero quickly but carefully extracted his arm and laid her gently down on the ground. He forced himself to look at her face and nowhere else to try and control the still-rising panic welling up in his chest. "What have I done? Oh Prairie, I'm sorry, what have I..."

"You didn't do anything," she whispered again, "it was Omega. You have nothing to be sorry for." Zero had to strain himself to hear her words.

"Yes I do. I said I'd protect you, and I failed. This is my fault, I shouldn't have gotten you involved. I should have-"

"Stop blubbering like an idiot." Even as her life trickled out onto the floor under her, Prairie could still manage to keep the authority in her voice. "I didn't want to be protected. I wanted to help you. The only one at fault here is me, for falling for Omega's final trick like the foolish little girl I am." Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him again. "I did help you, didn't I?"

"Of course. I couldn't have done it without you."

She managed a weak smile. "That's good. I'm glad. And I know you mean it, because you'd never lie to me, even at a time like this. That's just how you are, brutally honest to a fault." Her head rolled to the side once more, unable to support its own weight any longer. "You have no idea how much it means to me, to be able to help you., Even after you were gone, you helped Sis and I so much that all I wanted was to be able to do something to repay you, even if only a little. If that's what all this was for, then I'll be able to die happily knowing that I'd accomplished just that one thing."

"Prairie, you don't have to repay me for anything."

"I know I don't have to, but I want to. Do you see the difference? This makes me happy, Zero, happier than I've been in a long time. Thank you so, so much."

Zero couldn't think of anything else to say, his mind blanking. He'd seen reploids receive wounds worse than Prairie's and still live to see another day, but they'd been within reach of medical attention. Down here, at the bottom of ruins filled with mavericks and worse, there was nothing he could do to stop her life from slipping between his fingers and onto the cold floor below.

_This body is powerful enough to destroy entire armies, level cities, and annihilate entire civilizations. It contains a virus so horrific that it was sealed away for centuries, so powerful that its very existence was wiped from the pages of history. I have the ultimate power of the God of Destruction at my fingertips, capable of destroying anything that stands in my path..._

_...but what the hell is it all for if I can't use it to save even one goddamn girl?!_

"Help me, Zero..." Prairie's whisper snapped him out of his despair as she grasped weakly onto his leg with her hand, trying to pull herself closer to him. "Up, I want to go...up..."

Knowing that there was nothing else he could do for her but comfort her in her final moments, Zero gently lifted Prairie's body with both hands. She used her hand to steer herself over him, then laid her head down in his lap.

"I've...grown a bit since....last time," she said, coming to a rest. "I don't quite...fit here anymore." It sounded like she was more depressed about that than the fact that she was dying.

"You fit just fine," Zero said, gently stroking her blood-stained hair. "You can stay there as long as you want."

She tried to giggle and failed. "Don't worry...I know this...makes you feel...uncomfortable. I...won't stay long...just a few minutes..."

A moment of silence passed as Zero tried to hold back the tears in his eyes. He couldn't remember the last time he'd...actually, he could. Though he fervently wished he couldn't.

"It's time to go," Prairie finally said. "Please...don't forget about me, Zero. Don't ever...forget..."

"I could never forget about you," Zero reassured her, trying to keep his voice from breaking. "None of us could. The Guardians, Vent, Aile, Ashe, all of them. We'll all remember you Prairie, until the day we die."

"Not her..." Prairie said, shaking her head weakly. "Not her...me. Remember...me."

It took a moment for him to understand, and when he did he couldn't hold it anymore. He could feel the tears as they trickled down his cheek, then fell onto Prairie's face. "Of course," he choked out. "I'll always remember you." He patted her hair one last time, to let her know that he'd always be there. "Good night, Alouette."

Alouette smiled happily, the last expression she'd ever make. "Good night, Zero..." she said quietly, then fell into a peaceful sleep, one that would never end.

And in the deepest bowels of the earth, in a wretched prison created from the mind of a twisted maniac and warped by his lust for power, the God of Destruction cried.

* * *

**Author's Note (2):**

So, who honestly saw that coming? If I did a good job, you should be hating me right about now. FYI, the short fic I mentioned in the other Author's note is titled "Good Night, Alouette" and was inspired almost solely by that line at the exact moment I wrote it.

I'm not sure if it's spelled "fuchsia" or "fuschia". The first is the flower and the second is the color...I think. I wanted to the color, so I took my best guess. If I chose incorrectly and it's really bothering you, get a life.

I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure the line Omega yells when you fight him in N-1 is "I am the Messiah!" followed by his trademark evil laughter. I tried my best to work that line into this part somewhere, for better or for worse. It was kind of the signal that the real fight was about to start.

For those who don't know, "Cannon Ball" is the name of the song that plays when you fight Omega. Well, technically it's from MMZ3, and the remix of it in ZX is "Cannon Ball ~Hard Revenge~", but I'm not picky enough to care. Besides, I like the original one better.

Cookies to anyone who noticed the Cowboy Bebop reference. If you've seen the show it's pretty obvious.

And finally, a special thanks goes out to Xenosaga, for reminding me that some of the greatest stories out there are the ones that don't have happy endings.

'Til next time.


	22. Interlude: A Return to Zero Christmas

**Author's Note**

Merry Christmas! I meant to have this up on the 25th, but alas, I didn't quite make it. Still, better late than never!

I hadn't actually planned to do a Christmas special until about two weeks ago, so this came together rather in a hurry. It was crazy fun to write though.

So, get ready for the Return to Zero Christmas Special! Total lack of plot? Check! Nonsensical events that have nothing to do with anything? Check! Strange and random cameos for no particular reason or purpose other than I felt like it? Check! Random crap happening for no reason in particular? _D__ouble-check!_

So, strap in and have a good time! And if at any given time you have no idea what's going on, that's kind of the point. :)

...Oh, I should mention that I'm _really _pushing the boundaries of my T rating in here. Just....y'know, FYI.

* * *

"That's a pretty big house," Aile said. She brushed some of the falling snow off the top of her head. It landed on Vent's jacket.

"That's a pretty big house," Vent agreed. He absentmindedly brushed the snow off his jacket. It landed on the ground with a wet plop.

The building in question was indeed quite large. In fact, every building on this street seemed to be rather big, but this one in particular topped them all. It was three storeys high and at least eighty feet wide. Neither of them had thought to look down the side to see how far back into the yard it went, but Vent suspected it was some equally absurd amount.

"Why do you suppose Prairie had such a big house?" Aile wondered aloud. "It's not like she ever lived in it."

"Good question." Vent knocked loudly. A few moments passed in silence. Since she was both cold and grumpy, Aile decided she needed to whine about something.

"Do we _have_ to do this? I don't even particularly like most of them..."

"Oh come on, don't be that way. It's Christmas, you're supposed to be merry! Look at me, don't I look merry?" Vent put on a stupidly large grin and gave her a double thumbs-up.

"No, you look stupid and ridiculous. Oh wait, you always look like that."

"Hey, that hurts! You don't have to be mean."

"Yes I do, you're my brother and it's my job. Besides, we both know you're only coming because Ashe is here."

"What! That's totally not fair, quit hitting below the belt."

"Then stop doing all your thinking down there."

"Dammit sis! I told you, we're not like that."

Aile's unmentionable retort was interrupted as the door opened to reveal Prairie, dressed in a bright red and green dress crossed with white stripes, with two silver stars holding her hail in twin ponytails. Vent thought she sort of resembled a Christmas tree, which he supposed was probably the point. "Aile, Vent! Glad you could make it!" She exclaimed happily.

Aile raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"Oh please, that's just in the story. You didn't think the author would actually kill me, did you? He likes me far too much."

"It's true, I do," the author replied from somewhere off-camera. Aile was momentarily confused, but then decided she was still far too grumpy to care.

"Besides, that was several months ago. I got better. Anyway, stop standing around in the snow and come inside! You're not the last ones to arrive, but you're pretty close."

"Yeah, sorry about that. We ran into a few...complications on the way here. Namely, my sister's stubborn streak and total lack of enthusiasm for anything that doesn't involve action scenes or cute boys." Vent made an exaggerated point of rolling his eyes.

"Shut up and die." Aile marched past Prairie and into the warmth of the house.

"See what I mean?"

"Oh, she'll be fine. Now stop standing out there and come in already!"

Vent complied. Prairie took his jacket and hung it up in a closet while he pulled off his boots. He saw Aile's stuff piled in a corner where she'd thrown it. Prairie didn't seem to mind, so he didn't say anything.

"Now I'm still needed in the kitchen so I'm afraid you'll have to show yourself around, but most everyone is over in the main living room. It's down the hall there and to your left. They should be making plenty of noise by now so I can't imagine you'll miss it."

"I'll be fine, thanks." Vent smiled and waved as she hustled off down a different hallway. The fact that there _were_ different hallways was another testament to how large the house was. Come to think of it, he'd forgotten to ask her about that.

True enough, Vent had only gone a short ways down the hall before he heard loud male voices yelling at something. He thought he recognized one of them as Model F, but was in for a surprise when he finally reached the room.

Strewn about on various pieces of furniture in a variety of poses were over a dozen people from the main story. Vent only really recognized Zero, Aile, and Ashe, but he knew everyone else's names since the author knew that all the readers would be able to tell who they were, so it would simply be easier to write that way.

The two girls were sitting on a couch talking like they'd been best friends forever (the author was tempted to use the acronym, but restrained himself) while Zero was busy arm-wrestling with Fefnir on top of a glass table - clearly not one of their brightest ideas. Leviathan sat on a chair in the corner with a book, her feet resting on an oblivious Harpuia's head, who also had his nose in a book. The content of the books was irrelevant; they were merely props to be used for humorous purposes at a later point in the story. Phantom was there, but Vent couldn't see him, because you can't see ninjas unless they want to be seen, and Phantom did not currently want to be seen. There were also some nameless Guardian soldiers lying about who would never have any relevance to the plot and be forgotten as soon as the sentence after this one was over, so Vent pretended they weren't there.

"Don't worry, we're used to it," the soldiers assured the reader.

"Hey everyone, how's it going?" Vent said cheerily. Fefnir replied with a beastial roar full of rage and anger, along with a hint of mint tea.

"I'm gonna kick your ass, Zero!" He screamed in a rather over-the-top manner. "This is it! This is the one that counts! This time I can't lose! Prepare to die!"

"Uh, Fefnir? We're arm wrestling. People don't usually die when they're arm wrestling."

"But it's an arm wrestle of _death!_"

"Since when?"

"Since _now!_ I've got the strength! I've got the will! I've got the...uh..."

"Power," Leviathan filled in.

"Right! I've got the powaaaaaaaaaah!" Fefnir's voice suddenly and inexplicably sounded like it was from a certain eighties cartoon.

"Too easy," Leviathan chuckled to herself, then went back to her book.

"Look, Fefnir, you can't beat me. My arm servos are simply built stronger than yours. It's not a question of strength or will, it's a matter of specs."

"Shut up and die!"

"I'm hearing that sentence an awful lot for what is supposed to be a Christmas story..." Vent thought aloud. "Hey, why do you all have bodies?"

"Early Christmas present," Leviathan informed him, flipping a page. "We have to give them back when the plot starts up again next week."

"Oh." He decided not to ask who they were a present from. He also decided that getting in the way of Fefnir's revenge would be dangerous, so he carefully made his way around the room, sat down beside Ashe, and turned on the twenty-fourth century equivalent of the television, whatever that was. Ashe leaned back on him and held one of his hands with hers, but otherwise her conversation with Aile continued like he wasn't even there.

After a few more minutes of grunting and yelling from Fefnir, and sighing and finger-tapping from Zero, Prairie appeared in the doorway. "Would anyone care to help me set up the dining room for supper?"

"Supper?" Fefnir's ears perked up. "What's that about-GAH!" Zero took advantage of Prairie's distraction to slam Fefnir's arm down on the table. The glass table rattled, but was otherwise miraculously unharmed.

"I win," he said, then stood. "I'll help."

"No fair, you cheated! That was dirty!"

"No he didn't, Fefnir," Leviathan said with a sigh. "I was watching. It's not his fault you get distracted so easily."

Phantom suddenly appeared at her elbow. He spoke in a low voice, but everyone in the room could still hear him. "It seems somewhat hypocritical for you to be lecturing Fefnir on distractions when you've been reading the same page for the past twelve minutes while you constantly stare at Zero's-"

Leviathan's book smashed him in the face. "I suggest you begin acting like a proper ninja and _be silent,_" she hissed.

"Ninja vanish!" Phantom replied, and he did. Then the doorbell rang.

"Would someone get that for me?" Prairie asked sweetly. Aile said she would then hopped up and out of the room. Prairie and Zero were about to leave when Ashe yelled and pointed overhead, "Hey, look at that!"

Prairie and Zero both looked to see mistletoe hanging from the ceiling over top of them. Zero groaned. "Oh come _on_, do you have any idea how cliche that is?"

"Yes, and I don't care. Shut up and do it," replied the author.

"Zero, you don't have to..." Prairie started to say, but then Zero put an arm around her shoulders and tipped her back.

"Oh yes I do," the author made him say, then he planted a great big one right on the lips.

"I didn't actually think he'd do it," Ashe remarked to Vent, which Leviathan overheard.

"Oh, I'm not surprised at all. Zero used to be quite the lady-killer, you know, until he got a girlfriend. I can't help but wonder what she'd say if she were here."

"Zero has a _girlfriend?_" Vent exclaimed. Ashe was equally surprised, but didn't say anything. "I thought he died!"

"He did. Twice...I think. It may have been more. In fact, so did she. It's all rather complicated, really."

"Hey, how do you know all this?" Ashe asked. "They weren't even in your game series."

"Details, details," Leviathan said, brushing the issue aside. "We don't care about those sorts of things in bonus content."

Zero was still in the middle of giving Prairie a big, long Christmas smooch when he just happened to glance down the hallway towards the open door, where someone he hadn't been expecting was standing in the doorway, her mouth agape.

"Iris!" Prairie went from kissing to cursing in under two seconds as Zero dropped her flat on her back in the hallway. "What are you doing here?"

"Yes, _such_ a lady-killer..." Leviathan said, facepalming.

"What am _I_ doing here? _I_ asked X to resurrect me so I could come spend a lovely Christmas Eve with my boyfriend! What the hell are _you_ doing?" She wasn't yelling, but the heat of Iris's rage was starting to melt the snow on the ground outside.

"I was, uh, wait! It's not what it looks like! There was the mistletoe, and I got tricked, and then...I had no choice! The author made me do it!"

"Oh, and I'm sure it was such a _hard _and _ardurous_ fight!" Iris hissed over the sound of the fourth wall sliding shut. "Unfortunately, the all-mighty God of Destruction was _no match _for the first blonde-haired, blue-eyed _hussy_ he came across!"

"That's not true! She was the second!"

Even Fefnir realized what a stupid thing to say _that_ was.

Iris stormed back out of the house, accompanied by the sounds of the apocalypse. Zero rushed out after her, spewing apologies and explanations the whole way; that probably wasn't a very good idea, but he did it anyway.

"Wow, he's really got his hands full now," Aile remarked.

"Oh, it's not the first time he's done that," X said, announcing his presence as he stepped inside. He'd been standing right behind Iris, but the camera had never panned over far enough to get him in the picture. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll have everything sorted out in time for dinner."

"Speaking of which, I think I just lost my helper," Prairie pouted. "Anyone else?"

Aile popped her head back around the corner of the living room and saw that Ashe was now far too busy with Vent to be any kind of decent conversation. "I guess I will," she said with a sigh.

"Excellent! If you'll just follow me, the kitchen is this way." She grabbed Aile by the hand and dragged her down the hallway.

"I didn't do anything in this scene, so I'm just saying this so I get a line," Harpuia said, then went back to reading his book.

* * *

Once again, Aile was stunned by the sheer size of the house as Prairie led her down a maze of hallways and corridors, coming to a stop in front of a rather small, nondescript door. Judging by the smells wafting down the hallway, she figured it was probably the kitchen.

"Prairie, where did you get such a huge house? I've never even seen you leave the Guardian Base for more than a day or two."

"Oh, it used to belong to Sis, since...as long as I can remember. When she left I sort of...inherited it. I don't have time to come here very often, but I could never bring myself to get rid of it. Besides, it's good to have for times like these."

"Oh, I see. I guess...you must miss her a lot, at this time of year."

"What?" Prairie said, bewildered. "Why would I miss her? She's the one making dinner."

The door opened to reveal a scene of organized chaos. Stacks of dishes were piled to the ceiling in various places, with an assorted array of pots and pans bubbling and steaming on a variety of twentieth-century cooking devices. Aile saw two small figures darting around the room; one was blonde, the other was Grey.

"Grey?! What are you doing here?" She exclaimed.

"I got press-ganged into kitchen-duty," the young boy whined. "Why do you think I'm not in the main story?"

"Oh, like you had anything better to do," Prairie scolded. "Ashe has your biometal, and good luck getting her to let go of it."

"It's Christmas! We could share!"

"Less talking, more cooking!" The blonde figure yelled, running at them menacingly with a ladle. "Alouette, there you are! I need you to-" It was then she noticed Aile. "Oh, hello Aile. I'm Ciel, one of the most important characters to the plot of your game, yet I never get an appearance." The bitterness in her voice was clear. "You're here to help set up the dining room then?"

"Yeah...wait. How do you know my name? And aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"I'm as dead as anyone else in this convoluted series will ever be. And knowing everything is my job. Now get a move on, after you've got the table set I have dozens of other things for you to do. All the dishes and whatnot are in that cupboard over there. Dammit Alouette! You make an unreasonable amount of money being Guardian Commander - I should know, I set the salary - why couldn't you at least hire a Servbot or something to help me out?"

"Because I'd never be home to make use of it, so it would just be a waste of money. Besides, we're not even a part of that franchise. Are you saying you don't like my help?"

"No, I'm just saying I wish there were more of you." There was a sudden explosion somewhere to the left, and Ciel gasped. "Oh no! My souffle!" She cried very stereotypically, then rushed off with a panic-striken look on her face, madly waving her ladle.

"Your sister is...odd," Aile said. "With that much stress I'm surprised she lasted four games."

"I know, but she's not happy unless she's doing at least eighteen things at once. She's a bit of a workaholic."

"Well, at least she knows how to cook."

"Um...that's actually the problem." Prairie gave her a sideways look. "She doesn't."

"Grey! What's taking you so long with that barbeque soda?!"

Aile incredulously mouthed the words 'barbeque soda?' Prairie shrugged, as if to say 'see what I mean?', then shooed her off towards the cupboards.

Aile looked around as she went through the kitchen and very quickly decided she agreed with Prairie: Ciel did not know how to cook. There were a variety of dishes discarded or piled up in various places, most of which looked sort of familiar, but not quite edible. Aile was once again beginning to regret coming.

There was also another reploid sitting on the floor in the corner eating a cake with his bare hands. She didn't recognize him. "What are you doing here?" Aile asked.

The reploid shrugged. "They said there'd be cake." Then he went back to eating the aforementioned cake. It was very tasty.

While Aile agreed that cake was a pretty good reason to be anywhere, she didn't completely buy it, so she waved down Prairie. "Hey, who's this guy?"

"That's Axl. He said he was looking for cake, so I gave him some." She said it like it explained everything.

"All right, but why is he here?"

"I'd like to tell you that, but I'm afraid I can't. See that little grey bar right down there?" Aile nodded that she did. "That means we're about to have a scene change."

Aile looked down just in time to see it before it covered up her next line. "Oh, damn, you're right."

* * *

Being the energetic, restless person that she was, Ashe had gotten tired of sitting around waiting for dinner, so she decided to go outside and build a snowman. She also dragged Vent along for the ride, of course. (Not that he argued very loudly.) Leviathan predicted that they would be having a snowball fight inside five minutes, and as it turns out, she was right.

"Of course I'm right," she replied smugly.

"Why the hell am I letting you use my head for a footstool?" Harpuia asked, but nobody answered.

Outside, things weren't faring well for Ashe. Vent had her pinned down behind a snowbank and every time she poked her head out she almost got a face full of snow. Even if she did manage to throw one at him, he usually sliced it in half with a tree branch before it reached him.

"Remind me to never get in a snowball fight with a guy who cuts bullets with laser swords for a living," she said silently to herself.

"Come on Ashe, admit it! I win!" Vent yelled. He threw another few snowballs at her cover for emphasis.

"Never! This just means it's time to get serious!" She suddenly jumped out from behind the snowbank, ducking, dodging and weaving around Vent's snowball assault. "It's time for my secret weapon! Random Cameo Attack!"

A man in a blue jacket suddenly appeared and adjusted his glasses. "Good evening, everyone. Colonel Jade Curtiss, Malkuth Imperial Forces, at your service."

"Hit him!" Ashe screamed.

"Oh, very well," Jade sighed, then started casting a spell. "I, who stand in the full light of the heavens, command thee who opens the gates of Hell..." A magic circle appeared on the ground, and rays of light shot into the sky, then disappeared. "Come forth divine lightning, descend now! _Indignation!_"

A massive lightning bolt shot out of the sky and struck Vent, blasting him away in a huge explosion. When the dirt and snow had settled, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, are you done fighting already?" Jade taunted, adjusting his glasses.

"Thanks Jade!" Ashe said, giving him a thumbs up.

"Anytime, my dear," he said, then vanished in the coolest way possible.

"Hey Vent, where'd you go?" She found him a few minutes later, upside down in a snowbank on the other side of the street. Despite landing head-first, his hair was standing straight up like it was full of static electricity, and all his clothes were black and burnt in a very comical manner.

"Uh oh. I may have overdone it a little..."

"Would you like fries with that?" He replied, very drunkenly.

Ashe picked him up and threw him over her shoulder, then headed back into the house. "Oh well, it's nothing a few bandages won't fix. Let's get you inside."

"Welcome to Portugal, please drive through...?"

No sooner had she carried him inside and started wondering where she could find a place to lie him down than Iris burst back into the house, with Zero hot on her heels.

"...and then you just up and LEFT me there while you went to save the world for the umpteenth time! Do you have any idea how long I _waited_ for you to hurry up and die so we could be together?!"

"Look, Iris, I'm sorry! I tried to die, I really did! But Capcom kept making more games!"

"I don't care! I thought we had something special, Zero! Tell me, how many more pretty girls did you kill after me, hmm? I bet you were stabbing them left and right, like I was nothing!"

"Iris, it was just Prairie, I swear!"

"_Zero!_"

Ashe winced. Apparently Iris hadn't heard about that, since it had only occured one chapter ago. _Definitely one of those times when honesty isn't the best policy,_ she thought to herself.

"No, wait! What I mean is, it was _technically_ me, but it was Omega who actually did it, and Omega is me and I'm his body, and...okay, this isn't working. Look, I didn't mean anything by it! You're the only one I've ever wanted to kill! No wait, I mean..."

Iris ran up the stairs with a wail, Zero still following after her, spewing explanations and excuses. Ashe simply shook her head in disbelief. "Man, how did those two ever hook up? Talk about polar opposites."

"She's not actually that bad," X said from beside her. Ashe jumped in surprise - she hadn't realized he was there.

"Oh? She's done nothing but get jealous and whine about stuff ever since she showed up."

"Well, at first she was just doing it to tease Zero and make him sweat - just a little payback for leaving her to be in another fanfic. But knowing Zero, I have a feeling he probably said something stupid and now she really is pissed off at him."

"He definitely doesn't seem to know when to keep his mouth shut," Ashe agreed. "How does he manage to do so well in the games?"

"He's pretty good at reading scripts. Not such a smooth talker in person though."

"Germany called, they want their shirts back," Vent mumbled from Ashe's back. X raised an inquisitive robo-eyebrow.

"What happened to him?"

"I, uh...got a little carried away in a snowball fight. Say, do you know someplace where I can set him down? I think he just needs to lie down for a little while."

"I think there's a sitting room down that way somewhere. Make sure Fefnir doesn't know where you put him, though, or he'll wake up with black Sharpie all over his face."

"Thanks for the warning."

As Ashe ran off down the hallway, X wondered what the next scene was going to be, and how he could work himself into it.

* * *

"Aile! What's taking you so long?!" Ciel shouted from somewhere in the cacophony that was the kitchen.

"The pudding went all over the stove and got stuck under the burner, then it caught fire so I had to go get the fire extinguisher and-"

"Nevermind, it's not important! Here, put some candy cherries on this pastry." A large fluffy pastry and a can of cranberry sauce came flying at her from two different directions. Somehow she managed to catch both.

"This is cranberry sauce, not candy cherries!"

"Whatever, it's red and it's in a can, it's close enough! Now stop complaining and _move it!_"

Aile wanted to do anything but. She had been running around doing Ciel's bidding for nearly half an hour now with no end in sight. "You never told me your sister was a drill sargeant," she remarked to Prairie as the reploid girl swept by in a flurry of Christmas color.

"She ran a military resistance operation for over two years. What did you expect?" Then she was gone again.

"No wonder she's such a good Guardian commander, if this is what she grew up with," Aile complained, referring to Prairie.

After putting the cranberry sauce onto the pastry (hey, she wasn't going to argue) Aile found there were dozens of other things that needed doing, and they needed doing now. One had to wonder why everything was being done at the last minute.

"Because I was too busy to get down here and do it earlier," Ciel replied as she walked on camera, narrowly avoiding a spoiler for the main plot.

Aile was confused. "Did you just...respond to the narrator?"

"Yes."

"How...how did you do that?"

"Are you kidding? If it weren't for me the entire Zero and ZX series wouldn't even exist. I can do whatever I want."

"Oh?" Aile raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like a bet."

"Go ahead, try me."

A mischevious smile appeared on Aile's face. "I bet you can't swear."

Ciel stared blankly at her for a moment. "What?"

"I bet you can't swear. This story has a T rating, there's no way you can drop an f-bomb or anything in here no matter how hard you try."

Ciel looked thoughtful for a moment, then laughed. "Ha! Is that all? I told you, I can do whatever the f-"

An oven timer went off.

A moment of silence followed while Aile tried to contain a smile.

"Okay, I'll chalk that one up to random coincidence. I assure you there's nothing stopping me from saying...whatever I please."

"Oh? Ashe and Prairie got to say a few naughty words a few chapters go. Heck, even Omega got a couple. C'mon, can't you at least say those ones?"

After a few more moments of thinking, Ciel mumbled something. "There, I said it."

"It doesn't count if nobody can hear you."

"It counts if I say it counts you stupid little b-"

A duck quacked.

"_Goddamn it that's cheating!"_

The duck didn't think so.

"You just put that stupid duck in here to screw me!" Ciel yelled. "It didn't even exist until a couple seconds ago!"

Slightly offended, the duck left the room.

"Yeah, you get out of here before I decide to roast your sorry butt for dinner, you little dipsh-"

The doorbell rang.

"What the _f-"_

The microwave went off.

"I am going to shove my foot so far up your-"

The doorbell rang again.

"_Stop screwing with me_ before I bust a cap in your motherf-"

**The doorbell rang. **_**Again.**_

"FINE! Gosh...Aile, would you get the door, please? I doubt any of those other dumb sh-"

The doorbell was _still ringing._

"...any of those _morons_ will think to get off their lazy butts and answer it."

"Sure!" Aile replied happily, having proven her point.

Despite the amount of time it took her to reach the kitchen, Aile arrived at the door only moments later. Upon answering it, she found two more unexpected faces outside.

"Hello!" Pandora said, waving cheerily. She was wearing a box dressed up like a present, with a big red bow on top of her head.

"Hi," Prometheus grumbled, obviously less enthusiastic to be there. He was dressed up as a reindeer, of all things, and had a giant red nose. Instead of his usual beam scythe, he held a rather large candy cane. He still looked like he wanted to kill someone with it, but Aile suspected he always looked like that no matter what he was doing.

"What are you two doing here? Didn't you...wait, nevermind."

Pandora nodded her understanding. "Yeah, who knows whether we're dead or not. And even if we _are_ dead, that doesn't really seem to mean much these days."

"I can't believe you made me wear this..." Prometheus grumbled.

"Oh don't be such a Scrooge," Pandora scolded him, then turned back to Aile. "Actually, we were just on our way over to Albert's Christmas costume party and thought we'd stop in and say hello."

"Albert is having a...wait, no, I don't want to know. Things are too weird around here already."

"Yeah. Well, to be honest, I'd much rather come hang out with you guys, but it's pretty hard to argue with the person who holds your life in the palm of his hand."

"Between you and Albert, I'm not sure which one you're talking about anymore," Prometheus whined.

"Honestly, stop acting so pathetic. I'm telling you, you look adorable in that outfit!"

"That's the problem," he whined again. "I don't want to look _adorable_, I want to look _terrifying!_ How am I supposed to terrify anyone with this?" He waved the candy cane around. "All the other Mega Men are going to laugh and call me names, and I won't get to play any Mega Man games! I can hear them now. 'Oh no, look out! Prometheus is going to kill us with the power of his minty freshness!'"

"Oh grow _up_," Pandora said, brushing him off a shake of her head. She glanced back and forth suspiciously for a few moments, as though looking to see if anyone was watching, then motioned for Aile to learn closer. She did so.

"Okay, look. The truth is, we're just a distraction to get you out of the ktichen while Ciel comes up with a way to break the rules. So you better get back before she figures something out."

"Um...okay. Thanks, I guess?"

"Anytime!" Pandora grabbed the sulking Prometheus by the scruff of his reindeer-collar. "Come on, you big lump. Don't be such a party pooper."

"I hate my life."

"Doesn't matter, we may not even have them anymore."

"I hate whatever it is I have then."

Pandora heaved an exasperated sigh and mouthed the word 'brothers', then headed down the street with a wave. Aile gave her a sympathetic smile - she knew the feeling - then headed back into the house. When she reached the kitchen, she found Ciel waiting for her, a victorious and rather devilish-looking grin on her face.

"What?" Aile said, prepared for the worst.

Ciel swore.

Aile gasped. "How did you do that?"

Ciel laughed a laugh that matched the look on her face. "I told you, I can do _anything._" She swore a couple more times, just to prove she could.

"That's not fair!" Aile cried. "How did you get the narrator to take your side?!"

"Oh, that's not important. We'll just call it...gentle persuasion."

"Why you dirty little..."

"Oh shut up. I had to act like a prissy little goody two-shoes for four games, and I'm sick of it. From now on, we do things _my_ way, whether everybody likes it or not. Now get back to work, it's almost time for dinner and we aren't finished yet!"

Aile decided this would be a bad time to mention that they might have been ready if Ciel hadn't spent so much time trying to swear. Besides, it was partially her own fault for egging her on. "Yes, Master," she said, only half joking.

"That's what I like to hear," Ciel said with another evil grin, then ran off to hit Grey a few times for being slow.

"Man, this is some good cake," Axl remarked to X from the floor, where they had both taken up residence.

"Yeah, it is pretty good," X agreed. Then, having accomplished his goal of inserting himself pointlessly into the scene, he got up and left.

_**

* * *

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE LIVING ROOM...**_

...things were not nearly as dramatic as that text would have you believe. In fact, they were actually quite boring. Fefnir was thinking about puppies and zoning out while watching an episode of the Stupidest TV Show in the World. Leviathan continued to pretend to read a book while listening very carefully to the yelling coming from Zero and Iris upstairs, because she simply couldn't mind her own business. For reasons he couldn't understand, Harpuia had gone from being Leviathan's footstool to being her chair; he wasn't sure if that was an improvement or not. Phantom was practicing his ninja stealth techniques by doing an excellent impression of a lampshade. Ashe and Vent were nowhere to be seen.

The monotony was broken when Prairie appeared in the doorway. "Dinner's read-"

"FINALLY!" Fefnir yelled as he shot past her, heading straight for the dining room like a rocket.

"Well, that was exciting," Leviathan remarked, then clapped her hands twice. "Harpuia, let's go, chop chop."

"Why am I stuck being a stupid chariot?" He asked nobody in particular.

"Because honestly, you're kind of a dick," nobody in particular answered.

Upon reaching the dining room, everyone present gasped. Heaped upon the very long, overly large table in the center of the room was an assortment of random foods, all of which smelled...slightly odd. They also looked sort of weird. Nobody could quite put their finger on it exactly, though several tried.

"Why is there mayo on that lobster?"

"I think I see a block of tofu at the bottom of the punch bowl..."

"Are pancakes supposed to be orange?"

"The roast beef just got up and jumped off the table!"

"There's syrup in these mashed potatoes..."

"I'll take any of it! Leviathan hasn't let me eat anything all day!!"

"Harpuia, stop complaining and sit still or you won't be getting anything for the rest of the day, either."

"Don't worry bro, I don't think you want any of this anyway...why is there a porkchop in this cream soda?"

"I humbly suggest an immediate evacuation of the premesis before-"

"I don't _think_ so!"

Everyone turned as one to look at Ciel, who was standing at the head of the table, wielding her ladle like it was a beam saber. "All of you are going to _sit down, shut up, _and _**eat my goddamn food!**_ I worked _really _hard all afternoon to make it, and you're going to like it even if it _kills you!"_

"No way, lady!" Fefnir yelled defiantly. "This stuff looks gross! No way am I eating that for Christmas Eve dinner!"

In the blink of an eye Ciel went across the room, lifted the red General with her free hand, and threw him face-first into the nearest chair. Then she jumped on top of him, pried his mouth open with the handle of her ladle, and started shoving piles of food into him until he stopped moving.

Ciel turned to glare at the rest of the group. "Would anybody _else_ like to comment on my cooking?"

Everyone quickly and quietly moved to take a chair at the table. Everyone except Leviathan, of course - she directed Harpuia to a spot near the end and remained sitting on his back, much to the green General's chagrin.

"Oh man, why did I let Vent talk me into this?" Aile whined (quietly). "I really envy Zero right about now. Being yelled at by a little girl with a fake accent would be _way_ better than this."

"Actually, they stopped yelling at each other a few minutes ago," X remarked from his seat to her right.

"Then why the hell aren't they down here suffering with us?"

"Well, if they're following their usual routine, right about now they're...engaged in other activities. If you catch my meaning."

For a few seconds she didn't, then with a sudden shock of realization, she did. She immediately stuck out her tongue and fought down the urge to vomit. "Ew ew ew ew ew! Oh god, why did you have to put that mental image in my...hey, wait a minute!" Her disgust was replaced by puzzlement. "They're both reploids. How can they...you know...they don't have..." She made a bunch of obscure gestures with her hands to indicate what she meant.

"Oh, that. Well, let's just say...Zero was never the kind of person to believe in 'no-win' scenarios."

Thoroughly disgusted with this line of thought, Aile then wondered why she didn't see Ashe or Vent anywhere. Considering her brother was the reason she was here to begin with, there was no way she was going to sit here and put up with everything while he ran off to some corner of the house with Ashe to do god-knows-what...

_You know, the more I think I about it, the more appetizing this food looks._

"All right you morons, time to dig in!" Ciel yelled, slamming her ladle onto the table for effect. "This is my Christmas dinner, and you're gonna like it!" Her hawklike glare went around the table until it finally settled on Aile. "You! You get to go first!"

"Why do I have to-"

"_Because I said so!_ Now do it before you end up like Captain McDumbass over here!" The ladle waved in the direction of Fefnir, who twitched.

With a gulp, Aile picked up a spoon and dipped it into the nearest food-like substance. It was some sort of grey, quivering jelly that looked like a cross between Jell-O, pudding, and vomit. She began to contemplate if death by Ciel's ladle might not be preferable to whatever would happen if she ate this culinary abomination. With a courageous gulp, she closed her eyes and lifted the spoon to her lips...

"_STOP RIGHT THERE!_" Someone yelled dramatically from the doorway. Everyone turned as one to see who it was, and Aile took the opportunity to drop the spoon on the floor. She half expected it to eat through the floorboards like acid.

"Okay, who's the smartass who thinks he can interrupt my glorious Christmas dinner?" Ciel yelled angrily.

"It is I, Santa Claus!" The man in the doorway did indeed look something like Santa, but it looked more like Thomas dressed up in a Santa outfit, because that's what it was. He had a large brown sack slung over his shoulder, and somehow his beard had changed from red to white. He also had the typical red Santa hat on his head, though it was a little small and didn't seem to fit quite right. On his right, hiding slightly behind the massive red reploid, was Omega, dressed uplike an elf, for some reason. He looked very angry, but he always looked like that. How Omega and Zero were both in the house at the same time was a matter nobody cared enough to question, because at this point, continuity was obviously not an issue.

"I have come to save you all from the culinary torture that this she-devil has decided to inflict upon you!" Santa Thomas yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at Ciel. Omega rolled his eyes.

"And I thought my lines were cliche..."

"Wait, aren't you two supposed to be the badguys?" Aile asked.

"Nonsense! Christmas is a time of love and caring, of giving and receiving, of friends and family! Surely you don't expect me to be villainous during such a magical time of year."

"Yeah, real **bleep**ing magical," Omega replied sarcastically.

"I don't care who you are or what time of year it is, I'm making these miscreants pay!" Ciel shouted, still waving her ladle around like a madwoman. "I put up with all their crap for four games, set up the major plot points for the next two games, and then I get written off like some sort of minor sub-character! I didn't even have any dialog, just a stupid little picture of the back of my head! Someone's going to pay for the way I've been treated, and it may as well be this sorry lot!

"Very well then! You leave me no choice but to stop you by force!" Thomas produced a twelve-foot-long dual-bladed beam saber from the depths of his Santa suit, surprising everyone. "If it's a fight to the death you want, then it's a fight to the death you'll get!"

"Whoa, aren't we jumping to conclusions here?" Aile exclaimed. "Who said anything about fights to the death?"

"Hush dear, the show's about to start," Leviathan said. She'd managed to find popcorn somewhere.

"Please, can't anyone tell me what I'm doing down here?" Harpuia complained from the floor under her.

"Oh, that is _it._ Bring it on, fatty!" Ciel leapt across the room and took up a fighting stance across from Thomas, holding her ladle in both hands. Thomas gave a jolly, Santa-like laugh, which seemed rather out of place, considering the context.

"Surely you can't be expecting to fight me with only that little utensil for a weapon? There's no way a piece of metal can stand up to a beam saber!"

"Obviously you never played _X4_," Ciel replied, then charged.

After a long, drawn-out fight sequence involving a lot of explosions and food-related puns, Ciel finally had Santa Thomas on the ropes. His beam saber had shattered into seven pieces and then scattered to the far corners of the world to be gathered in a lengthy sub-quest later on. Meanwhile, Ciel stood poised over him with her ladle, ready to make a killing stroke...somehow.

"Any last words?" She said.

"You can't kill me, I'm the main villain of the story! And I'm dressed as Santa! You'll scar all the kids for life!"

"Come on, it's not so bad. I spent the early years of my life fighting a war, and I think I turned out all right." The wicked grin reappeared on her face. "Don't you?"

Ciel pulled back for her final blow, but Omega abruptly appeared beside her and punched her in the gut. She lost the hold on her ladle as the air rushed out of her lungs, sending it flying across the room. Omega followed up with a chop to the back of her head, knocking her flat on her face. Before she could recover he picked her up and threw her into the big brown sack that Santa Thomas had brought with him but neglected to fill with presents.

"No! You can't do this to me! I'm an important-" Then her head disappeared into the sack and Omega tied it shut.

"I have _always_ wanted to do that," he said. He slung the bag over his shoulder and started walking casually out of the room to deposit it in a less-than-savory location. "You deserve every single minute of this, you stupid little-"

"Ho ho ho! You'd better stop that sentence right there before the censors get you!" Thomas yelled.

"You'll never get away with this!" Ciel yelled as she struggled uselessly inside the sack. "I know things! You'd better let me out of here right now or I'll start revealing plot spoilers!"

"Oh please, you don't know anything," the author scoffed.

"Oh yeah? Prairie's not dead!"

Everyone gasped.

"Shut up, yes she is!" The author retorted.

In the next room over, Prairie died.

"See?"

"Siarnaq isn't really a badguy, he's just faking it so he can spy on Thomas!" Ciel continued.

"I told you to shut up!" The author yelled, frustrated. "Omega, hit her, quick!"

Omega grinned. "You kill the most badass villain in Mega Man history after just one lame-ass fight, then make me show up to a stupid Christmas party dressed like a frickin' _elf_? Why the hell should I do anything for you?"

"Siarnaq is also a zombie!" Ciel yelled.

"That...isn't really spoiling anything," the author said, then shooed them out of the room before anything else could be revealed. Not that anything Ciel said was true or had any meaning. It was just meaningless babble, after all.

Do you hear that? _Meaningless babble._

With the fourth wall safely back in place, the author promptly vanished from the rest of the story.

"How did I ever let myself get talked into coming here?" Aile whined as her head banged down onto the tabletop. "I knew it was going to be completely ridiculous."

"Look at the bright side, my dear," Leviathan said from beside her. "If you can get past the atrocious appearance of this food, it's actually rather tasty."

Aile blinked a few times in disbelief, then took a fingerful of the nearest sludge and put it in her mouth. Surprisingly enough, Leviathan was right. It tasted vaguely of strawberries and cinnamon. "Wow, this is actually pretty good."

"Of course it is, I made that one," Prairie said as she sat down beside her. "I just had to make it look bad on the outside to get it past Ciel. I actually _do_ know how to cook."

"Hey, I thought you just died!" Aile exclaimed. "It says so right up there!" She pointed at the text above.

Prairie raised an eyebrow. "Are you questioning continuity in a Mega Man story?"

"...Good point."

"That's what I thought. Now here, I'll show you which of these things are edible."

* * *

Over in the doorway, Ashe and Vent looked out over the scene with a mix of awe and confusion.

"Well, looks like we missed most of the fun," Ashe said.

"Depends on your definition of 'fun'," he replied. "Though I must say, at least it wasn't a boring Christmas party."

"With a group of characters this dysfunctional? Of course not. But you know..." She looked down the page. "The story isn't quite over yet."

"Oh? What else could possibly..." Vent trailed off as Ashe pointed a finger upward. Glancing up, he saw that they were standing under another piece of mistletoe. "Oh."

"'Tis the season," Ashe said with a grin, then jumped him.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Hahaha, confused yet? Man that was fun to write. There was basically no planning involved, I just wrote whatever came to mind. Don't expect this to be as high-quality as the rest of the story, since I spent hardly any time on it in comparison. I just wanted to goof around a little.

If you don't know who Jade Curtiss is, go play Tales of the Abyss.

As for Ciel's spoilers...they were totally fake. I swear. Don't listen to anything she says, she's obviously crazy.

...Obviously. *shifty glance*

In all seriousness, there should be an actual update in the next week or so. It's been finished since before Christmas, but I wanted to do my Christmas special. Let me have my fun! :P

**Axl**: Look at me, I'm in the Author's Note! Wee! Hi Mom!

Hey! Get out of here, you little bugger. What are you even doing here to begin with? Shoo, shoo...


	23. Part 21: Dance Macabre

Part 21: Dance Macabre

Vent walked back to meet up with Ashe, dreading the return crossing he'd have to make over the bridge and hoping that Ashe was keeping the door open for him - walking around in this place by himself was more than a little unnerving. He kept thinking he could see things moving out of the corner of his eye, but he knew it was just his imagination getting the better of him...hopefully.

However, upon reaching the nefarious bridge, Vent was overjoyed to discover that significantly larger portions of the bridge were becoming stable now that the bridge had remained extended for several minutes. _I don't know why we couldn't have just waited the five minutes rather than scare the living daylights out of me trying to jump across that thing..._he was so caught up in his grumbling that he was halfway across the gap before he realized that Ashe was nowhere to be seen. _Then why is the door staying open...?_

Vent finished leaping the chasm and rushed over to the control panel, then groaned when he saw a rock was sitting on panel holding down the button. "Couldn't she have thought of putting a rock on it _before_ I had to jump the stupid thing?"

"I did," Ashe's voice came from the darkness of the next room, followed by a loud crashing noise. "I just wanted to see you jump around like an idiot. Besides, it's your own fault for not thinking of it before you went jumping over there. Sometimes you Guardian types make things so much more complicated than they need to be."

A few different choice words that he'd like to yell at the girl came to mind, but before he could say any of them there was another cacophonic crash, followed by an insincere 'Oops'. In the end, his curiosity beat out his anger. "What's going on out there? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I thought I should try and build up some defenses in case we're attacked while waiting for Zero, so I started piling up some of the wreckage to make a barricade. Turns out this stuff is pretty durable; it should be stand up to just about anything a maverick could lug down here."

"And how did you find this out?" Vent asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"It took about thirty seconds for her to get bored after you guys left, so she started running around blasting things to keep herself occupied while she waited," Model A informed him.

"Hey, shut up!" Ashe yelled indignantly.

"What? It's true!"

"Yeah, but you don't have to say it like _that_. You make me sound like some sort of crazy maverick!"

"No way! There's one important different between you and mavericks."

Ashe's brow furrowed angrily. "Only one?"

"After you finish blowing stuff up, you expect to get paid for it."

"Okay, that's it, into the black vortex of doom you go."

"You wouldn't!"

"Just watch me."

"Ashe, calm down," Vent said, trying to contain a chuckle as he blocked Ashe's path as she tried stomping into the Cyberspace room. "He was just teasing you."

"I know, and a few thousand years of floating through digital world should teach him what a bad idea that was."

"Geez, what's gotten into you lately?" Vent said with a good-natured smile as Ashe tried to push herself past him, but as soon as he touched the girl he realized there was something wrong - every muscle in her body was completely tensed up, and now that he could actually see her face clearly it looked like she was about to cry.

"Ashe, what's wrong?" He said in a much more serious tone. He put his hands on Ashe's shoulders and tried to get a look at her face, but for some reason she refused to look up at him.

"Nothing, I'm fine." She stopped trying to push past him - not that she'd really been trying that hard to begin with - and simply stood there staring at the ground between them.

"You can't honestly expect me to believe that. Don't lie to me, Ashe. I'm your friend, remember? And not one of those Hunter friends that you have to be afraid is going to stab you in the back. I care about you, and if there's something wrong, I want to help. So come on, tell me what's gotten you so worked up that you'd seriously consider throwing your biometal into the black hole of Cyberspace."

For a while she didn't look like she was going to say anything, and he fully expected her to just brush him off like she usually did. But then she spoke, in a small, quiet voice. "It's not fair."

"What?"

"It's not fair!" Ashe yelled, then continued at her original volume. "It's just not fair! Why the hell does this crap keep happening to me? First this weird piece of talking junk turns me into a metal juggernaut, then I find out I'm related to some psychopathic maniac with a God complex, then the entire capital city tries to blow me to pieces because of a _different_ psychopathic maniac with a God complex, and now I'm trapped who-knows how far under the surface of the Earth with an army of mavericks behind me and swarms of weird tentacle-things trying to suck me dry and some stupid reploid who's supposed to be dead but isn't quite and what the hell are you staring at?!"

"Oh, uh, sorry," Vent said sheepishly. "It's just that I, uh...well, I just...never expected you to, I mean...of all of us, I never thought you'd be the one to have...uh...issues...with...stuff." His hands moved through the air aimlessly, as though trying to grasp onto the words he couldn't seem to get out of his mouth.

_Most eloquent speech ever, genius._ The annoying little voice in his head was back, and as much as he hated to admit it, he agreed with it.

"_Issues_?!" Ashe yelled again, pushing him away with both hands hard enough that he stumbled back a step or two. "You think I have _issues_?! Do you know what _issues_ are for normal fifteen year old girls? They have _issues_ finding shoes that match their dresses! They have _issues_ finding boys to go out on dates with! They have _issues_ learning how to wear make-up to make them look pretty!"

"Aile never really did most of those things..." Vent said.

_That's really not what she wanted to hear right now_, the voice informed him. It was probably right. Luckily Ashe was yelling too loudly to hear him.

"Oh no, I don't have any _issues_! I have _books_! I have _volumes_! I have freaking _arcane tomes_ compared to that kind of crap! Instead of having to worry about stupid things like money and boys and shopping I'm worried about trying not to _die_ six times a day!"

"Well, to be fair, you're not dead yet..."

_Of all the things you could have said there, that was probably the worst._

Vent winced as Ashe rounded on him, anger burning in her eyes. "_**Yet?!**_ Nice choice of words, Vent! No, instead of being _dead_ I'm just so goddamn tired and scared that I wish I was, and to top it all off I'm soaking wet, it's so dark I can't see a bloody thing, I'm completely filthy, and it smells like a pile of corpses everywhere we go!"

"Calm down, Ashe. Don't you think you're being a little-"

"Would you shut up and let me vent?!"

A tense silence hung in the air for a moment while Ashe glared angrily at him, and then...she started laughing. It started as just a chuckle but quickly grew until she was laughing out loud.

_...What the hell?_

"Hee...get it?" Ashe giggled. "Let me Vent..."

"...Oh!" Vent had been so preoccupied with trying not to get his head bitten off that he hadn't even noticed the pun. "That's...not really all that funny..."

"I know," Ashe agreed, but continued laughing anyway. "It's actually really stupid....but for some reason...I can't stop!" She barely managed to get the words out.

Vent couldn't help but smile at Ashe's uncontrollable urge to laugh, then quickly found himself joining in. By now Ashe was laughing hard enough that her legs had given out and she'd sat down on some of the crates she'd been piling up, her arms wrapped around her chest and her feet kicking in the air as she went on and on until her sides hurt.

"That's...probably the stupidest joke...anyone has ever said..." She managed to gasp out between breaths.

"It was...pretty bad..." Vent agreed around his own bouts of laughter. He was mostly laughing at how ridiculous Ashe was acting, but it wasn't long before he was sitting beside her, laughing just as loud as she was. Seeing Vent in such distress just made Ashe laugh even harder, and so the cycle continued until they were both completely out of breath and about to fall over. Their biometals remained silent - Model A was too confused to speak, and Model X figured that laughing out all their tensions would do both of the young Mega Men some good.

"Hoo boy, I needed that," Ashe said after she managed to catch her breath, wiping a tear from her eye. "That felt great. Thanks for being a good sport." She gave Vent a friendly whack on the back.

"Hey, that's what friends are for. Besides, Aile gets so worked up over everything that I'm used to being a verbal punching bag by now."

"Yeah, I can totally see that. Still, sorry for getting all pissy like that. This place just creeps me the hell out, and...well, this hasn't really been the best week of my life, y'know?"

"That's all right. You handle yourself so well that sometimes I forget that you haven't been doing this as long as the rest of us. Being a Hunter and being a Mega Man are two very different things."

"Oh, it's not so bad. I have bigger guns than I used to, but I have to blow up bigger badguys too. Say, I never really asked before, but exactly how long _have_ you been a Mega Man?"

"Um... three years, I think."

"Two years, nine months, twenty one days," Model X filled in.

"Right, almost three years. Actually, Aile and I were about the same age as you at the time. It was kind of hard to deal with the whole saving-the-world thing at first, but we had each other - and the Guardians - for support. I can see how it could get a little overwhelming for someone who's used to dealing with problems on their own, like you."

"Wow, way to make me sound like a sissy loner."

"T-that's not what I meant! I just mean that-"

"Relax, I'm kidding." Ashe laughed again. "Honestly, you're way too easy to tease. I really am kind of a loner, but that's just how life goes." Ashe looked thoughtfully downward, as though there were suddenly something very important on the ground between her feet. "Although, I could definitely get used to this 'friends' business. Life's a lot more fun when there's people like you in it...and Aile and Prairie and the Guardians too, of course," she hastily added.

_What are you waiting for?_ The little voice said. _This is the perfect opportunity for you to tell her how you feel._

_ You have a pretty strange idea of 'perfect'._ Almost as strange as arguing with himself.

_ Excuses, excuses. Just get it out of the way so you can quit being awkward around her. And didn't Prairie tell you to get things settled before she gets back?_

As much as he hated to admit it, the voice seemed to be doing pretty well lately, so he decided to go along with it. Prairie had ordered him to, after all.

"So, um...Ashe? I think we, uh...we need to talk about, um..." It was all he could do not to stutter. He knew what he wanted to say, but his mouth didn't seem to want to say it.

"Yeah, I think you're right," Ashe said with a sigh, derailing his line of thought even further. "There's something I really need to tell you."

"There is?"

"Yeah." She looked at least as nervous as he was, but she seemed to be handling it better. She was still speaking in sentences, at least. "Do you want to go first, or me?"

"Oh by all means, ladies first."

_Wuss_.

"Okay." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "You know how right before we left the Base...you and Prairie were...um...talking about..." Suddenly her eyes went wide. "Look out!" She yelled.

"Wha...?" Before he had time to react Ashe threw herself at him and knocked him backward, off the crate. Seconds after landing butt-first on the ground with Ashe in a pile on top of him an explosion rattled the stack of metal boxes Ashe had piled up beside them. Before he could even figure out what was going on, Ashe abruptly broke her Megamerge, leaving Model A floating in the air in front of him.

"What the hell...Ashe?" He shook her, but there was no response. Ashe had gone completely limp. "What's wrong? Model A, what happened?!"

"I don't know! Something hit her in the back and then she passed out!"

"In the back?" Sure enough, after turning Ashe over Vent could see three small but nasty-looking knives sticking out of her back, right under where Model A's armor would normally have appeared. They didn't appear to have penetrated more than skin-deep, so Vent ripped them out. Not even a trickle of blood came from the three puncture wounds.

"What are these things...?" Vent said as he held the three knives in front of his face, and only then did he notice that the ends of them were blunted. They'd only had enough strength to puncture the skin because of the force of the throw.

Another explosion hit the opposite sides of the pile of crates besides him, reminding Vent that he had other immediate concerns. After gently laying Ashe on the ground he crawled over to peek his head around the corner of the crates, then quickly pulled back again as a hail of plasma fire shot past. Things were not looking good.

Vent fought down the urge to panic; he'd been in plenty of tight situations before and lived to tell about it, but only because he kept his head. "Can either of you tell what those things did to Ashe?" He asked the two biometals.

"I thought I saw a data transfer start just before the biolink broke, but I can't be sure," Model A said.

"Probably a virus of some kind," Model X guessed. "I can't tell what exactly it's doing to her other than the obvious, but her life doesn't appear to be in any immediate danger."

"That's a relief, but not much help," Vent said, then started charging his Busters. "Could it be some kind of new maverick weapon?"

"I don't think so. This is similar to the kind of weapon Model P uses. Be very careful, Vent. You know what a Model P Mega Man is capable of, especially in dark places like caves."

"This is getting better and better," Vent groaned, then ducked around the corner fired off a few blind charged shots. He memorized the positions of the Galleons that were illuminated by the glowing plasma as it flew by before jumping back behind the crates just in time to avoid the counterattack. He did the same maneuver several more times, hitting a few targets each time, but they were quickly advancing on his position. "This isn't going to work. If I can't see them I can't hit them fast enough!" Not to mention the fact that every time he fired a shot it was like turning on a big light that said 'shoot here' to the mavericks. He couldn't leave Ashe here unprotected, and even if he managed to retreat across the bridge, he'd be trapped over there.

"Could you Double Megamerge with me?"

Vent turned to stare at Model A for a second, not sure if he'd heard quite right. "What?"

"I have Siarnaq's DNA stored inside me, remember? That would help you see in the dark."

"You're right." Vent turned to pop off a few more shots over the top of the crates. "Do you think you can, Model X?"

"I'm...not sure."

"Why not?" Model A insisted. "You can do it with Model Z and the others."

"Yes, but we all have the same creator. You were made by Albert; your protocols may be different from ours. Then again, they could also be exactly the same. I honestly never thought about it before."

"Well it's not like we've got much else to lose at this point." Vent fired off a few final shots, then broke his biolink. "Let's do it!"

"Anytime."

"Yeah!"

With Model X already in his right hand, Vent grasped Model A in his left, then raised them both over his head. "Megamerge!"

The familiar white light filled his vision, but it seemed to last a few seconds longer this time. He heard both biometals say "M.E.G.A. system online" and he opened his eyes, the world quickly fading back into view. He immediately noticed a few weight differences and took a moment to look himself over. The bright blue sections of Model X's armor had turned into a lighter shade of grey, while the red gem on his forehead was replaced with Model A's trademark circle. When his head moved he could feel the weight of two fins sticking out above his ears, and there was a thin visor over his eyes displaying a variety of information, similar to what Giro had had when he was using Model Z. His chest and legs felt overall bulkier, with a bit of added plating in a few places. They didn't feel any heavier when he tested them though.

"So I'm guessing everything worked out all right?" Vent said.

"It would appear so," Model X agreed. "I had to do some fancy linking, but it would appear that our protocols are compatible after all."

"Fancy linking?" Model A exclaimed. "You were throwing code everywhere! That was amazing! I don't even know how you did it."

"It's what I was built for. However, I will admit that even I'm not entirely sure what exactly I did."

Another explosion hit the pile of crates, sending a few of them flying overhead to crash against the wall. "Can we admire your handiwork later? Just tell me how to make all this stuff work." Vent motioned at the visor over his eyes. "What's this for? And where's my gun? I'd better have a gun."

"You have one of my Busters, and you have one of Model A's beam pistols. You can make them appear the same way as you did before. The visor can display any of the kinds of information that the other biometals can - enemy weakpoints, low-light vision, energy sources, and so on."

"Sounds good." Vent made both weapons appear, the Buster on his right arm and the pistol in his left. "Keep talking." He activated the Model P's low-light vision and started firing at the suddenly visible army of Galleons that were now over halfway through the room, moving in groups of five.

"Model A's pistol still has it's lock-on capability. Any target you've got a lock on will appear red on the visor. I couldn't seem to integrate it with my own optical systems, so I had to make it an external; sorry about that."

"I'll forgive you this time," Vent said as he tried it out. The closest group of Galleons were suddenly framed by red targeting reticules. Vent released the charge on his pistol and a large plasma burst ripped out of the barrel. It had travelled no more than a foot before it burst into a swarm of smaller shots that ripped through the targeted group of mavericks, filling them with a dozen holes each.

"I think I like it," Vent said as the five Galleons exploded. He ducked back behind his crates when his visor detected an energy buildup to his left, just in time to avoid a series of plasma rounds from another enemy group.

"Oh, now this is interesting," Model X continued. "It would seem that Model A's transformation abilities are capable of interfacing with my VES."

"Your what?" Despite working with Model X for several years, Vent still had no idea what he was talking about.

"Variable Energy System. When I was...well, when the real X was alive, the VES was what allowed him to fire different types of energy-based ammunition out of the same arm cannon. Thus far I have been unable to recreate the effect through the M.E.G.A. system, but if I send the data through Model A's A-Trans protocols it should work...though only when using his pistol."

"So I can shoot lightning and stuff out of this thing?" Vent waved the weapon in question around.

"Not exactly. That arm can transform into any kind of weapon Model A has stored data for, which could then fire any projectiles out of it that they normally would. He'd have a better idea of what sorts of ammunition that entails, exactly."

"Oh wow, I get it!" Model A exclaimed excitedly. "Um, let's see, we've got Spark Balls, Burning Arrows, Ice Missiles...wow, this is so cool! It's like being everyone at once!"

"Burning Arrows sound useful, let's try those." Vent noticed that a part of his visor display changed to indicate the weapon he'd selected, and his pistol also changed into a cannon-ish thing. He fired a few rounds over the top of his crates and a series of flame-tipped arrows shot out in multiple directions. Several Galleons took them full-on in the chest, exploding instantly. "Three at once, I like it."

"Just be careful of how many you fire around. My linkup to A-Trans isn't perfect so you'll have to stop and let the VES recharge if you use it too much."

"All right."

With his newfound ability to see in the dark and a huge number of options available to him for blowing things up, Vent managed to push back the approaching tide of red-eyed Galleons. Without any alternative means of finding their prey, the slow-moving mavericks were forced to wait until Vent popped his head out and fired before they could retaliate, but at that point Vent was already back behind his crates. Vent, on the other hand, used Model P and Model L's scanning abilities to pinpoint the exact locations of every Galleon in the room from safety, appearing only long enough to fire off a few precision attacks before retreating again.

After a few minutes of being decimated, whoever was commanding the Galleons must have decided they needed to change strategy. The Galleons pulled back behind the midway point of the room, where random gunfire had created a sizable amount of rock cover for them to use. Vent could have blown it apart, but not without leaving himself open, so he left them alone for the time being. After all, he was only buying time until Zero and Prairie got back. Even with his new abilities he held no illusions of being able to destroy an entire army by himself. _Not to mention Model P is still out there somewhere_. He switched his visor to scan for strong energy signatures, the kind a reploid or mechaniloid core generator would create, and picked up thirty sources, with more coming down the far corridor.

While the Galleons retreated he took the opportunity to take another look at Ashe. She was still completely unconscious, though now that the strange blunted knives had been removed there was no outward sign that she'd ever been hit at all. He shook her gently a few times on the off chance that she would wake up, then carried her over to the doorway that led to Omega's bridge. She would be at least a little bit safer there, where there was no danger of being crushed by flying crates.

Returning to his wall of metal boxes, Vent continued his energy scan of the room. He wanted to make sure that the Galleons didn't get any closer than they already were. Once Zero and Prairie returned they could formulate an escape plan, but for now he was just worried about protecting Ashe. He fired a few plasma shots from his Buster at a few Galleons that stuck their heads out a little too far and managed to score a few more hits, but the mavericks had learned their lesson and moved onto the defensive.

"Well, it looks like we've got ourselves a stale-" Vent began, then noticed a tiny blip appear behind him on his energy radar. He spun to one side just barely in time to avoid being stung by another series of three blunted knives, which instead bounced harmlessly off the ground. "Got you!" he yelled, then fired a sheet of bullets at the point where he'd detected the energy spike. A shadowy form shot out like a rocket from behind one of the small outcroppings of rock on the wall just before Vent's attack struck it - if he hadn't been staring right at the spot he definitely would have missed it. "Give it up, Siarnaq!" he shouted, locking on to the cloaked Mega man with Model A's pistol.

"NEGATIVE. PRIMARY TARGET IS CURRENTLY AT A DISADVANTAGE. ASSAULT WILL CONTINUE UNTIL SITUATION DICTATES OTHERWISE."

Vent fired his locked-on attack, but made sure he didn't lose his targeting lock - he didn't want to give Siarnaq the opportunity to sneak past him and reach Ashe. The violet Mega Man's speed allowed him to successfully dodge the dozen small bullets that attempted to home in on him, but Vent had expected as much. He'd used Model P before; dodging bullets was one of the things is was good for.

Siarnaq attempted to slink back into the darkness of the cavern, but even Model P's stealth powers couldn't keep Vent's targeting lock from pointing him out like a sore thumb. Vent fired a charged shot from each hand, one where Siarnaq was hiding, and one where he would probably dodge. He guessed right, but after jumping over the first blast Siarnaq deflected the second with a swipe from the massive shuriken that abruptly materialized in his hand, then countered with a shower of kunai. The deadly knives bounced harmlessly off the floor as Vent dodged to the left, covering himself with a volley of shots from his Buster as he switched his arm to fire Hedgeshock's Spark Ball. The gun disappeared, startling him for a moment until he realized that Spark Ball was generated straight from the palm of his hand. He followed up his Buster assault with a spray of electricity that shot out from his fingertips, but none of it connected. Siarnaq was using Model P's speed to his advantage, dodging around and jumping over everything Vent sent his way.

_I have to get close to him, where he won't have time to dodge..._

No sooner had he thought it than Siarnaq charged him with a series of quick melee attacks from his shuriken. Vent hopped backward and countered with a punch from his Buster hand, and the two began to dance around the room. Vent weaved punches and Buster shots together in an attempt to catch his opponent off-guard, while Siarnaq alternated between shuriken slashes and kunai stabs. Neither of them had any luck making contact.

Suddenly Siarnaq pulled back and vanished in a puff of smoke. Vent's target lock disappeared as well - Model P was the stealthy one for a reason. Vent prepared himself for a sneak attack from any angle, and he was concentrating so hard that he was caught by surprise when the ground nearby abruptly exploded, followed by a hail of plasma bullets. He'd forgotten about the Galleons, who had once again begun advancing through the room. He tried to run back to the cover of his crates but Model P's shuriken flew out of the darkness to cut him off, zigzagging across his path and pushing him back into the open. Another explosion to his left knocked him off balance as he was pelted by more plasma fire. His armor prevented any significant damage, but it wouldn't be able to endure the attacks indefinitely.

Frustrated, Vent fired a charged blast from his Buster that blew apart the Galleon who was launching grenades at him. Siarnaq took advantage of the distraction and fired several waves of kunai from the darkness. Vent had his hands full dodging both the Galleon's plasma fire and Siarnaq's daggers, and after a few close calls he decided dodging wasn't going to work forever. He switched his pistol to mimic Model P's kunai and launched his own waves of tiny projectiles as he hopped away from another Galleon grenade, firing a Buster shot into the approaching crowd with his other hand. The two waves of kunai collided in mid-air and fell to the ground while the plasma melted through three Galleons that were too slow to move out of the way. The closer they got the easier they were to hit, but he he was running out of time. Soon the mob of blue mechaniloids would reach him, and it wouldn't be long after that before they noticed Ashe hidden in the doorway.

"Model A, what do you have that can destroy a whole lot of these things at once?" Vent said as he danced around the room.

"Uh...not much. For some reason there's a block between large portions of my DNA data and the...thing on your arm."

"That would be my doing," Model X explained. "Unfortunately, my VES is a poor copy of the original and it can't handle some of the more powerful weapons Model A has access to, so I disabled them. Trying to use them would just cause the system to overload and become unavailable. Given more time I might be able to work something out, but this isn't exactly the ideal situation to-"

"Okay, I get the point!" Vent yelled as a plasma blast zipped past his face. "Look, just...think of something! I'm running out of options!" The front lines of the Galleons were now less than ten feet away; he had to act quickly.

_It's me they're after, not Ashe. I have to draw them away from her._ But the only place he could go was...he groaned. _I'm going to regret this later._

Vent dodged around another shuriken throw from Siarnaq as another Galleon fired a grenade at him from the massive launcher over its shoulder. Before the explosive had time to go off Vent ran over and kicked it as hard as he could like a soccer ball, sending it straight back into the crowd of mavericks; Vent dashed after it at full speed. It hit closest one in the chest and detonated, blowing it apart. Vent appeared in its place before the tiny maverick pieces even had time to reach the ground. The two closest Galleons turned their plasma rifles on him, but before they could fire a shot a small pink energy blade appeared in Vent's pistol hand and flashed through the air, slicing them both neatly in half.

Vent blindly fired a charged Buster shot at a cluster of energy signatures to his left while he dashed towards another group right in front of him. He jumped over their initial volley of attacks, landing directly in the middle of them. The tiny blade in his hand was abruptly replaced by a blue trident, which he gripped by one end while he swept the other around in a circle, slicing the entire group apart at the waist.

Every remaining Galleon in the room turned as one and fired on Vent's position. He replaced the trident with a green beam saber as the weapon flashed through the darkness, deflecting or destroying plasma rifle bursts before they could reach him. Combined with a little fancy dodging he managed to survive once again with only minor damage to his armor.

Suddenly Model P's shuriken was coming at him again, aiming straight for his head. Vent ducked at the last second and it sped past harmlessly, missing him by a fraction of an inch. As the next wave of Galleon plasma fire approached, and before the shuriken could make a return trip, Vent fired a burst from his dash thrusters and jumped toward a nearby group of four mavericks, aiming for the one that was farthest away. Before landing he switched his beam saber for one of Model F's Knuckle Busters, bringing it down onto the head of the unfortunate Galleon with a vicious overhand slam. The other three turned to fire, but Vent grabbed the nearest one by the arm and held it in front of him. He felt his makeshift shield take a few hits before Model P's shuriken, still chasing after him, sliced through the two remaining mavericks on its way to him. Vent threw the bullet-ridden Galleon he was holding forward and dashed to the side as it was cut in two, then fired another charged Buster shot at another nearby Galleon before it could send a grenade at him. His eyes followed the shuriken as it sped away from him, and Vent scanned the place where it disappeared to try and reacquire his target lock on Siarnaq. He wasn't worried about attacking, he just wanted to know where his opponent was hiding. Unfortunately, the Mega Man in question was nowhere to be found. _Damn, he's good._

Vent rolled behind a nearby rock for a breather. He'd pushed the Galleons back a short distance, but there were still a lot of them and only one of him. He couldn't keep this up forever.

"Vent, I think I've got something," Model X said abruptly.

Vent blinked as a bunch of random information appeared on his visor, then vanished again. He didn't understand a word of it. "What was that?"

"I just linked Model A's Giga Attack into my Overdrive system. I think you can activate it now."

"What's a Giga Attack?"

"That thing Ashe did on those wires back at the lake," Model A said. "You know, shooting everything at once?"

"See, that's what I'm talking about. Why didn't you set it up sooner?" A plan started forming in Vent's mind. It wasn't very complicated.

"Because I didn't figure out how to make it work until a moment ago. But be careful using it; just because two systems _can_ link up doesn't mean they were _meant_ to. I'm not entirely sure what it's going to do when you turn it on."

"Oh, great. So you're telling me I could shoot everything in the room like Ashe did, or I could just blow myself up?"

"No, the system would overload and shut down before it caused any damage to you...I think."

"You think?"

"Well, it's more of a hope, really..."

Vent groaned audibly. A grenade suddenly landed at his feet, forcing him to roll back out into the open again. He kept low and dashed toward the middle of the room as he was peppered by plasma rifle fire from nearly forty Galleons. They were coming in faster than he could take them out. It was time to change that.

It really wasn't a very complicated plan. As soon as he reached what he judged to be more or less the center of the room, Vent activated Model X's Overdrive system. Normally Model X didn't have an Overdrive mode, and activating it would instead activate the Overdrive system of any other biometal he was merged with. It allowed for an increased power flow from the biometal into Model X, and thus to Vent. He could usually feel a slight tingly feeling as the power flowed through Model X and into his body, accompanied by a neat little glowing effect.

This time, that's not what happened.

The slight tingle was replaced by a sudden intense, searing pain, while the glowing effect was replaced by an inexplicable flash of light that emanated from every part of Vent's armor. He felt something swell inside him, pulsing against his chest, pushing until he thought he was about to burst. He felt his feet leave the ground, then the world exploded around him.

The next sensation he felt was a sudden pain as a rock struck him in the back of the head. He realized he was lying face-down on the ground. He pushed himself onto his hands and knees, then blinked several times to readjust his eyes to the darkness after the intense flash of light from...whatever it was he'd done.

"So that's what that does," he heard Model X mumble to himself. "Interesting."

"Interesting?!" Model A squealed. "That was friggin' awesome man! You were all like 'hyaaaah!' and they were all like 'bwaaaaah!' and then everything was all 'KABOOOOOM' and then you fell over!"

"Sorry, you'll have to speak up, I can't hear you over the ringing in my ears," Vent said as he got to his feet. He noticed he was still in Model AX. "Now I know how it feels to explode and live to tell about it."

"Sorry about that. It would appear I made a few mistakes in the linkup. I've got things figured out for next time though. Anyway, it was just a sensory overload, you didn't suffer any permanent damage. You should feel fine in a moment."

"'Just a sensory overload' he says." Vent gave his head a shake, then changed his visor back to scanning for energy signatures. It came up blank. "Hey, I think I broke the visor."

"No, it's working fine," Model X replied. "The readout is accurate."

"Yeah, you vaporized'em all!" Model A exclaimed. "I told you, KABOOOOOOM! Seriously, you don't remember?"

"No, not really." Looking around with his low-light vision, Vent couldn't see a single piece of Galleon left on the cavern floor. In fact, even most of the rock debris was missing. "Hey, is it just my imagination, or did this room get bigger?"

"You vaporized part of the surrounding rock, which then caused a few cave-ins," Model X said. "It was quite the blast."

"Looks like one of them was over the doorway," Vent remarked, looking over at the exit. A large pile of rock and metal debris from the Ragnarok was piled up over the doorway. He could hear the sounds of Galleons blasting away at it from the other side. "Sounds like they'll be here soon." His visor indicated a sudden blip behind him - something was there that hadn't been a moment ago. Vent could only think of one thing it could be.

"Siarnaq!" He brought his weapons up and spun around. On the other side of the room, near the doorway to Omega's room, stood the reploid in question. Vent's eyes widened at the sight of his lightly armored metal boot perched delicately on top of Ashe's windpipe. "Get away from her!" Vent yelled, charging his Busters.

"NEGATIVE. PRIMARY TARGET HAS COMBAT ADVANTAGE. ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY REQUIRED. DISENGAGE M.E.G.A. SYSTEM OR SECONDARY TARGET WILL BE ELIMINATED."

_Damn damn damn! Vent, you're a moron!_ Of course Siarnaq had known where Ashe was; he'd probably gone over to her as soon as Vent jumped into the Galleons. Vent started searching through Model A's weapons data to try and find something that could help.

"Don't bother," Model X whispered. "That Giga Attack overloaded the VES. It'll be a few minutes before you can use it again. For the time being I suggest we do what he says."

"How do you know he's not just going to kill her anyway?" Vent argued.

"He won't. Trust me."

Vent grit his teeth, but did as Model X suggested and broke his biolink. What choice did he have? There was no way he could reach Siarnaq in time to prevent him from crushing Ashe's throat. His vision flashed white and then he was standing in his normal clothes, Model A grasped in one hand, Model X in the other. "Happy now?" He shouted. Without Model AX's visor he couldn't even see the ground in front of him, however the ever-present blue glow emanating from Omega's hallway to the right illuminated the Mega Man's form in the gloom.

"AFFIRMATIVE. NEXT INSTRUCTION: TARGET WILL DELIVER BIOMETALS TO ME. THROWING IS ACCEPTABLE."

"Don't worry, Vent. Just do it," Model X assured him.

Vent did as he was told, but purposely threw the biometals too far to the left. Despite being able to float of their own accord, they clattered noisily to the ground. "Sorry, my arm's out of practice," he said sarcastically. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

"UNACCEPTABLE. FURTHER ACTS OF RESISTANCE WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION. RETREAT FIVE METERS FROM CURRENT POSITION AND HOLD. COMPLY!"

Vent continued glaring angrily, but there wasn't much he could do at the moment. He stepped backward grudgingly, feeling the ground with his feet as he went for a suitable throwing rock. _If I can lure him away from Ashe, maybe I can distract him long enough to get Model X back..._He realized how stupid it was to think a rock would be any sort of distraction to a Mega Man, but he'd rather die fighting than get taken back to Legion and turned into a Maverick.

"ADEQUATE DISTANCE REACHED. HOLD POSITION AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTION." Siarnaq removed his foot from Ashe's neck and started walking over to where the biometals had landed. Vent decided this was his only chance. He bent down to pick up the nearest rock he could find and...

The room was suddenly lit up as a huge plasma burst shot out from Omega's hallway, passing a scant few inches above Ashe on its way towards Siarnaq. The purple Mega Man noticed the attack just in time to leap over it, then deflect a second blast with his shuriken as soon as he landed. Before he could launch a counterattack at whatever had fired the shots, a red blur with a hint of green shot out of the hallway and slammed into him. In the darkness couldn't really tell what was going on, but it looked like someone was swinging a beam saber around. _But it's like the saber is everywhere at once...how could anyone swing a beam saber that fast?_

With a kunai in each hand Siarnaq made a valiant effort to defend himself. He seemed to be doing all right for a while, but then he was suddenly and completely outmaneuvered. The red attacker knocked both kunai from the Mega Man's hands at the same time, then brought a knee up into his stomach and grabbed him by the neck at the same time. Siarnaq tried to struggle, but the red...thing picked him up with one hand and threw him across the room. He hit the wall with an audible crunch. Several pieces of rock, knocked loose from the impact, tumbled down on top of him.

Now that the red figure had stopped moving, the glow from the saber illuminated it well enough that Vent could see what it was. It humanoid-shaped, and from the way it moved that saber around he guessed it was probably a reploid - even with cybernetic enchancements, humans couldn't do that. In the darkness, with a long mane of blonde hair and the red-and-black armor on, it looked like a cross between Giro and the body Zero had made from Galleon parts. There was nothing extravagant or noticeable about it at all, aside from maybe the helmet. Vent could only see it from the back, but it was definitely the same helmet he'd seen on Zero, and then on Prairie. _So...is that Zero? Or...is that Omega?_ Since he didn't know what either of them looked like, there was no way for him to tell.

Whoever the red reploid was, he walked calmly over to the motionless pile of rock and dirt where Siarnaq had landed. He reached in with one hand and, with what looked like a minimal amount of effort, pulled the battered and bruised Mega Man out of the debris and hefted him into the air, then slammed him up against the wall. The cave trembled and more dust fell from the ceiling, creating a strange, wispy aura around the two figures, lit up by the glow of the saber.

Siarnaq was definitely looking the worse for wear, but Vent knew it would take more than a little physical abuse to finish him off. However, with his back against the wall, his feet five inches off the ground, and the red reploid's hand wrapped around his neck, things weren't looking good for him.

The two reploids stared at each other silently for a few moments. Vent guessed Siarnaq was trying to think of an escape route, while his opponent considered what he should do with him. At this point, Vent honestly had no idea what either of them would do.

"Try it," the red reploid said abruptly. "See how close you can get." Vent had no idea what he was talking about.

Apparently Siarnaq did. It all happened faster than Vent's eyes could see; a kunai appeared in Siarnaq's hand as it whipped around at the reploid's head, there was a flash of green, and then the arm was flying through the cave, sliced clean off.

"Good. Now twitch so I have a reason to kill you." A pause. "Go on. Twitch."

"Zero, that's enough," Model X said from the darkness. _So, that IS Zero. At least someone around here knows what's going on._

Zero turned to the source of the voice and opened his mouth to speak, but before any words came out Vent saw a kunai appear in Siarnaq's other hand. Vent was about to yell a warning - for all the good it would do - when Siarnaq's head was suddenly vaporized by a plasma burst. Vent could have sworn it came straight out of Zero's hand. The now-headless corpse of the Model P Mega Man fell to the ground in a heap.

"You didn't have to do that," Model X said, exasperated.

"No, but I wanted to. Besides, you can't say I didn't warn him."

"I think you're confusing the word 'warn' with 'taunt'."

"You're just as annoying as the real X, you know that?"

"Zero!" Vent yelled, having just caught up to the moment. "You're...you were...then you..." He moved his arms and pointed at various parts of the room as he sorted out what was going on in his mind. "And now you're...and then you killed him! Why did you have to kill him?!"

"Relax, Vent. He was already dead."

"Now isn't the time for metaphors!"

"I am afraid that was not a metaphor," a new voice said from the direction of Siarnaq's corpse. Vent recognized it as Model P even before the biometal broke its biolink in a flash and appeared floating in midair. "Model X, permission to cease execution of directive ninety-nine."

"Permission to whatnow?" Zero said. Clearly he was as confused as Vent.

"Permission granted, authorization code X-twelve."

"Authorization verified, resuming normal operations." The purple and white biometal floated over to Vent, stopping just in front of his face. "It is good to see you again, Vent. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused."

Vent stared blankly in surprise at the biometal for a few moments, then got angry. "Inconvenience?" He shouted. "Ashe is lying over there on the ground and I almost got my head blown off, and you call it an inconvenience?!"

"Ah yes, the girl. That was a miscalculation on my part, for which I apologize. She had better reflexes than I anticipated."

"What's that supposed to mean? You still hit her!"

"Yes, but I was aiming for you."

"What?!" He was ready to throttle the stupid floating piece of trash.

"Vent, calm down and we'll explain," Model X said.

"Please do," Zero said, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. "What is, or was, directive ninety-nine?"

"It was a contingency plan put into place between myself, Model X, and Commander Prairie," Model P began. "In the event that the biometals, or their Chosen Ones, ever took a position contrary to that which were designed, I would take it upon myself to gather as much intelligence as possible from behind enemy lines with the intent of removing them. To such an end, we installed a directive - ninety-nine - into my program that would, upon execution, alter my thought and behavior patterns such that I would become completely oblivious to what I was doing. In effect, it would turn me into an enemy."

"The perfect spy is the one who doesn't know he's a spy," Zero observed.

"Precisely. Unfortunately, while the directive was active I may have contributed more to the cause of our enemy than I have to our own; only time will tell. Regardless, the directive was designed such that it would continue execution until the first opportunity to terminate presented itself. As one of the two individuals capable of issuing the termination order, this encounter with Model X in a secluded space was an ideal case."

"That still doesn't explain what happened to this poor guy," Model A said as he hovered over Siarnaq's corpse. "What did you mean by 'he was already dead'?"

"Precisely that. Before executing directive ninety-nine, I happened to discover that the recently-deceased body of that young man was a compatible biomatch for me. Rather than risk being controlled by a person of questionable motive while under the influence of directive ninety-nine, I decided to assume control of his systems. That way I could be sure that when the time came I could make a clean escape, as evidenced by our recent encounter."

"Wait a minute," Vent said. "If Siarnaq was already dead, how were you moving him? You can't make a biolink with a dead body!"

"That is correct. I was merely using my abilities to simulate the effects of the biolink and then animating the body myself. It took an awful lot of concentration and a not inconsiderable amount of my power, but such a thing is not out of the realm of my abilities. Illusion and trickery are both within my field of expertise, after all."

"Well it was an awfully convincing illusion. You nearly killed me on more than one occasion."

"Yes, but in the end, I did not. The trick to creating a convincing illusion is not to make it seem as real as possible, but to simply keep anyone from suspecting that what they are seeing is not reality. In most cases, people will not see what they are not looking for. Besides, if I had wanted to kill you, rest assured that with an army of Galleons marching on my command, I most certainly could have managed it."

From anyone else Vent might have thought that was bragging, but from Model P it was simply a statement of fact. "All right then, what about Ashe? What did you do to her?"

"I had created a series of special kunai that would disperse a small virus program into cybernetic implants on contact, temporarily overloading them with data and rendering them inoperable, and thus incapacitating their target. I had intended to hit you with them and then deal with the girl myself, but as I said before, she is quicker than she looks. I can assure you that after she regains consciousness she will feel only a slight headache, nothing more."

"And when will that be?"

"The virus was intended to incapacitate you for two hours. However, due to her lower body mass and her weakened physical state - I am guessing she had a run-in with those red cables? Yes, I thought as much - I am afraid she will not wake for quite some time. My best approximation would be somewhere around twenty hours, or possibly closer to a day. Without any previous examples it is hard to tell."

Vent sighed, then picked up the unconscious girl in both arms. "This makes twice today, twice yesterday, and once the day before that that I've had to carry this girl around. Good thing she doesn't weigh very much."

"Considering your feelings for her, I didn't think you'd have a problem with it," Model P remarked casually.

Vent nearly dropped Ashe in surprise. "Wh-what? How did...how did you know about that? The only time I ever said anything was..."

"I have been hiding in the Guardian Base gathering information to send back to Thomas ever since the attack by Aeolus and Model H. By coincidence I was on the deck transmitting my report when you and Ashe had your discussion last night."

"You were on the...wait, me and Ashe? I was talking to Prairie."

"No, you were talking to Ashe A-Trans'd into Prairie. Model A acquired her DNA data during your exercises that afternoon." Model P paused for a moment. "You mean you hadn't noticed? I thought for sure that you of all people would be able to tell the real Prairie from a fake. I found the differences to be quite obvious."

"You mean...I was...and she was...and I said...and that was...and she was...and that's why..." Vent lapsed into a confused daze for a few seconds as he tried to puzzle out the implications, then a low booming noise from the caved-in path to the surface reminded them all that they weren't alone.

"We should get moving," Model X said. "Model P, you can make your report once we're back at the Guardian Base."

"I concur. While I do have valuable information to relate, it would be of little use in resolving our current situation."

"But how are we going to get out?" Vent said, snapping out of his funk. He'd deal with Ashe - and Model A, come to think of it - later. "The entrance is blocked."

Zero smirked. "You don't honestly think something like a big pile of rocks is going to stop me."

"No, but I thought the fifty Galleons on the other side might."

"Sixty-two, actually," Model P informed them. "You did a commendable job destroying about two-thirds of the ones that made it all the way down here. However, there is still a sizable force on the surface that I could not bring into the mountain; heavy artillery and the like."

"Sounds like fun," Zero replied, walking into the darkness to wait for the Galleons to finish blasting their way through.

"Hey, where's Prairie?"

Vent hadn't even noticed her absence until Model A asked the question. "Hey, yeah. Where did Prairie go? ...Zero?" He felt like his stomach jump into his throat when he saw that the red reploid had stopped dead in his tracks, fists clenched at his sides. "Zero, what happened?" There was an urgency in his voice that hadn't been there a moment ago.

There was a period of tense silence before Zero answered. "Prairie is...staying behind."

"What do you mean? Is she..."

"She made the decision herself. She didn't even give me a chance to talk her out of it; maybe because she thought I might be able to. But I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for her, and neither would any of you."

"Prairie is...gone...?" Vent was dumbstruck for the second time in as many minutes. It just didn't want to compute in his brain. "Zero, what happened in there? Tell me!"

"It doesn't matter. What's important is that we get out of here and back to the Guardians before Thomas has time to make his move. I'll...tell you all the details later."

"Fine, but we can't just leave her there!" Vent turned and started for Omega's room, but Zero's voice stopped him.

"It makes no difference where her body is," he said loudly to catch Vent's attention, but then he quieted down again. "As long as we remember her, she'll still be with us no matter where we are."

"But...it just isn't right!"

"Vent, I know how you feel, but you have to let her go. It's not going to change anything either way, and I'm sure Prairie would rather we escape safely than try to bring her along. Now get ready, we're going to have to move quickly."

Vent glared silently at Zero's back as he disappeared into the darkness of the cavern. _How can he just walk away like that?_

"I know what you're thinking, and I can assure you, he feels the same way you do," Model X said as he and Model A floated to Vent's side. "But this is far from the first time Zero has lost someone dear to him in battle. He's simply had more experience dealing with this sort of thing than you."

"In other words, 'you'll get used to it', right? A lot of good that does me now."

"That's not what I was saying at all. Losing a loved one is always painful. You just...get better at hiding it. There will be time to be sentimental and mourn later, but not right now. Prairie's death will mean nothing if you get yourself killed thinking about it. Just do your best to put it out of your mind for the time being and pay attention to the task at hand. Prairie is gone, but you and Ashe are not. Zero will be trying his best to keep you that way, but he can only do so much. He needs you with him, Vent."

"I know, I get the point," Vent replied. He stuffed Model A into one of his pockets, then grabbed Model X and Model P and Megamerged in a flash. "That doesn't mean I have to like it."

"There are very few things to like about war," Model P observed.

Vent agreed with a grunt as he gently lifted Ashe off the ground. After getting her settled comfortably in his arms, he happened to glanced down at her face. There were a few small smudges on her cheeks, and her white hair had streaks of brown dirt running through it where it had been lying against the ground. But despite that, with the way if fell down and framed her face in the darkness, Vent was struck by how beautiful she looked.

"Vent?" Model X said after a moment. "We need to go."

"Right." He shook his head to clear it. Yet another thing he didn't have time for.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Finally, the story continues! Hooray! Apologies to anyone who went straight from reading the uber-depressing Prairie chapter to the uber-random Christmas special. I didn't plan it that way, the holiday just came at a bad time, story-wise. Thanks for letting me take my little detour.

So there's a couple plot twists revealed here. Back in the author's note in part 17 I hinted that there was a secret, so there you go. If you go back and read what 'Prairie' says, you'll find it's very unlike her. I'd be curious to know if anyone figured out what was going on though.

If you don't buy my twist on Model P...too bad :P. I thought it was cool, so I went with it. Though, if Prairie's prediction of Siarnaq being a zombie came true, it makes you wonder what else she may have been right about...*shifty glance*

I'd never heard of anyone making a Model AX before (Model Axe, ha!), so I thought I'd try that too. The ability to use all the weapons of anyone Model A has fought with a, plus a visor that displays everything that shows up on the bottom screen of the DS is pretty powerful and opens up a lot of combat possibilities, only a few of which I actually used. I actually spent a lot of time trying to think of exactly how I wanted to do it (two pistols? two X-Busters? which gun fires the VES? and so on) and finally settled on what you just read. If you're 'thinking "why didn't Vent just do this?" or "why didn't he use this weapon?", the answer is he probably could have, but I just didn't write it that. Battle scenes take a lot of time to plan and write, and I can only work in so much before it just starts to drag on. I also need to keep this story moving if I ever hope to get it finished. As far as the Giga Attack goes, think X2's armor capsule. I suppose to be entirely accurate I should have called it Giga Crush, but whatever. Giga Crush sounds like something you'd use on a Gobstopper, not a maverick.

And shame on anyone who thought I'd actually kill Ashe. Just because I killed off one of my favorite characters in the game doesn't mean I'd kill the other too. :P

Dance Macabre is the miniboss music from ZX. It also plays in ZXA when you fight that weird plant miniboss at the end of the jungle stage. It took me a while to come up with a decent name for this part, but I think considering what you learn about Model P, and that there's a boss fight in this part, it works rather nicely.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed part 20, as well as my ridiculous Christmas special. Prairie's death seems to have hit a nerve with a lot of people,and, well, that was the point. If you care about my characters, it means I'm doing my job. If a character died and you didn't care, then I'd have a problem. I also needed to make Omega as evil as we all know he is, but I only had a small amount of dialogue and screen time to do it with. Killing Prairie was a really good way to make him go from being 'really evil' to 'omg I hate you' in a very short period of time. What good is having a villain if he isn't villainous? And yes, I'd been planning that for a long, long time.

As a final, off-topic note, I finally finished Mana Khemia 2 yesterday and discovered what a badass final boss theme it has. It's called 'Namenloses Licht' ('Nameless Light' in German) and there's both a Japanese vocal version and guitar-only version, both of which can easily be found on YouTube. I can't decide which version I like better, but if you enjoy badass rock guitars, I highly recommend checking it out. The guitarist that Ken Nakagawa and Daisuke Achiwa have on staff is amazing.

Already hard at work on part 22. Until next time!


	24. Part 22: Relief

Part 22: Relief

After sleeping soundly through an entire night in the infirmary, Aile was pacing restlessly down the hallways of Cygnus Base when her communicator crackled to life.

"Aile?" Fleuve's voice said.

"I'm _fine,_ Fleuve," she said with a sigh. He'd been checking up on her constantly ever since she'd woken up. It was nice to know he cared, but it was starting to get annoying.

"I thought you might like to know, Vent just arrived in transerver room five-"

"On my way!" She was off like a bullet. Fleuve said something else but she didn't hear him and didn't care enough to ask him to say it again. All she cared about was that everyone had made it back safely.

Guardian soldiers jumped out of Aile's way as she flew down the corridors. It was unlikely that any of them had heard the news yet, but she was sure Fleuve or Prairie would announce it soon. She was about halfway to her destination when she rounded a corner a little too quickly and found herself inches away from slamming into a bright red chestplate. She tried to stop herself, but it was too late. She yelped and threw up her arms to cushion the impact, but rather than run into anything she felt something jerk backward on her arm, nearly pulling it out of its socket and bringing her to an abrupt halt.

"You should watch where you're going," someone said. The voice sounded familiar but she couldn't quite place it.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-" She cut off when she noticed that the owner of the bright red chestplate she'd been about to run into was now standing off to the side and holding onto one of her arms. He was dressed in an odd-looking assortment of red and black armor, which was unusual for anyone to be wearing these days. Aile knew she'd never seen him before, but that finned helmet looked awfully familiar...

It took a moment for her brain to put two and two together. "Zero?"

"In the flesh. Well, sort of."

"Oh, wow! You look...different than I expected." She glanced up and down, giving him another once-over. "But...not all that strange, I guess."

"I'll take that as a compliment," he replied with a chuckle.

"Well, since you're here and you've got your body back, I guess that means you guys won! Fleuve told me Vent was-"

"Vent is on his way to the infirmary with Ashe. No, don't panic, he's fine. They had a little run-in with Siarnaq, and...well, I'll let him explain it. You don't have to rush, I don't think he's planning on leaving her alone anytime soon."

"Um, all right..." Aile didn't really know what he meant by that but she was too excited to care. "Thanks for letting me know. I'll catch up with you and Prairie later!" Then she was bolting off down the corridor without looking back. If she had, she may have noticed the pained look that flashed briefly across Zero's face before he continued on his way.

A few minutes and a mad dash down the hallways later, Aile burst into the infirmary. She immediately caught sight of her brother leaning over one of the beds and talking to a nearby nurse, who nodded once at whatever he'd said, then left. He looked up at the sound of the door opening.

"Vent!" She charged over and was about to tackle him, but at the last moment she decided to restrain herself and just hugged him fiercely instead. "I'm so glad you're back!"

"Good to see you too," he said with a smile, returning the embrace.

"What happened to Ashe? Is she all right? I ran into Zero in the hallway and he said something about Siarnaq, what was all that about?"

"Whoa, slow down, I'll explain everything. Ashe is fine, she's just sleeping. Model P says she'll probably be awake in a few hours."

"Model P?"

"A pleasure to see you again, Ms. Aile," a voice from said from somewhere down below. Vent put his hand in one of his pockets and fished around a bit, then came back up with Model P in the palm of his hand. "A pity that we could not be reacquainted under better circumstances. I take full responsibility for the Hunter girl's current condition. However, you can rest assured that she will be back to her normal self in a matter of hours, and with a healthier amount of sleep than either of you have gotten in the past week."

"How do you know...and what happened to...and why are you..." Aile shook her head. The questions were flying through her head faster than her mouth could spit them out. "I think you all have some explaining to do."

"I agree, but..." He glanced around at the nurses and patients lying in the nearby beds. "Not here. C'mon, let's go back to our room on the Guardian Base. I'll start explaining along the way." He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out the door.

"What? Why can't you do it here? Vent, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"Look, just...come with me. I'll tell you everything. About Ashe, Siarnaq, Model P, Zero...everything."

* * *

"So...she's really gone, then."

"I'm afraid so."

"I...see."

Those were the first words Fleuve had spoken since Zero told him of Prairie's demise. He'd taken a few minutes to wander about Prairie's room on board the Guardian Base, where Zero had taken him to tell him the news - it seemed the only appropriate spot. He picked up some of her belongings one at time, looking them over carefully. They were all that was left of her, after all.

"The Commander and I didn't always see eye to eye," he began quietly, "and we weren't really very close, aside from our roles. But despite that, I can't help but feel sad for the loss that the Guardians...no, that the entire world has suffered today. She was a truly remarkable reploid, and...I will miss her dearly."

_Concise and to the point, as usual. _"It would make her happy to hear you say that."

"Yes, well...it's merely the truth."

After a few moments of awkward silence, Fleuve cleared his throat. "I suppose the question is, what do we do now?"

"We carry on as planned. Prairie gave me the rank-equivalent of Commander, which means I'm in charge of the Guardians now. Since that sounds as ridiculous to me as it does to you, I'm promoting you to Commander as well." Fleuve began to protest, but Zero waved him off. "I know you don't think of yourself as a Commander, but what choice do I have? You know the Guardian organization and logistics like the back of your hand, and everyone knows you. I can lead the fighting from the front lines, but I need someone back here giving me support who I can trust not to panic, and who knows what he's doing. From what I hear you more than proved yourself capable of that in yesterday's battle."

"That was mostly Model L's doing," Fleuve grumbled. "I'm just a scientist."

"And once upon a time I was just a soldier, but here I am leading a war. Prairie trusted you, Fleuve, and that means I do too. More importantly, I need you, and so do the Guardians."

After a few more moments of silent grumbling, Fleuve snorted. "Hmph. Fine. But as soon as this whole fiasco is over, I'm resigning."

"That's all I ask."

Fleuve glanced around the room one last time, then sighed. "I suppose I had best begin the final preparations for our assault. I'll schedule a strategy meeting with all squad leaders in an hour, and I'd like you to be there to provide input. Bring Model P along as well; I'm sure his intelligence report will prove quite useful in deciding on our strategy."

"All right, I'll see you then."

"I should point out that this would also provide you with an opportunity to inform the rest of the troops of Prairie's...absence."

Zero sighed. "I know. I'm sure there are already rumors going around that Prairie didn't return with us, so it's not like we can keep it quiet for long. I'll...think of something."

"I'm sure it would help put the troops' minds at ease to hear it from you. It's important that we keep their minds on things that matter rather than things that can't be changed." Fleuve turned and headed out the door.

Zero smiled sadly. "That's a pretty harsh way of putting it, but you're right. You know, as nice as it is to have someone as pragmatic as you around in times like these to keeping things running smoothly, I'm glad not everyone in the Guardians is as hard as you."

"There are times for mourning and there are times for action. There will be time for the former after we've dealt with the latter. Personal feelings have no place on a battlefield. But you already know that, don't you?"

"All too well," Zero mumbled to himself as the door slid shut behind the little reploid man. "All too well."

* * *

Ashe woke to the sounds of two women having an angry discussion.

"I'm telling you, she's fine, we can move her someplace else."

"You're just saying that because you don't want to do any work. Personally, I don't believe a word that floating chunk of metal said."

'_Floating chunk of metal'? Is she talking about a biometal? ...Which one?_

"I am not! And it wasn't just him, Vent said she'd be fine too. Look, we need the bed. Why can't we just take her down to her room and let her stay there?"

"Because I want to keep an eye on her, that's why! Teenage girls don't just pass out for no reason, and I'll be damned if I-"

"It's all right," Ashe said with a yawn, startling the two women. "I'll go."

"Goodness, you're awake! How are you feeling?" The second woman asked.

"Just fine, thanks," Ashe said with a polite smile. She swung out her legs and jumped to her feet, then did a couple of stretches to work the kinks out of her muscles. She couldn't remember what had happened, but there didn't appear to be anything wrong. "Where's that room you mentioned?"

"It's over in the residential quarters," the first woman replied happily. "Go left out the door and follow the signs until you get there. Sector four, block twelve, room thirteen."

"Are you sure you're all right?" The second woman asked again.

"Never felt better! Sounds like there might be someone else who needs this a lot more than I do...wait, why are you so full on beds? Did something happen while I was out?"

The first woman nodded. "Legion attacked while you were gone. We fought them off, but took a lot of casualties. Vent yelled and hollered until we cleared a space for you, but..."

Ashe rolled her eyes. "There he goes, overreacting again. Don't worry, I'll give him a piece of my mind for you next time I see him."

The nurse smiled. "Glad you see it our way." She grabbed her coworker by the arm and they hurried off to their duties.

Ashe took a brief look around the infirmary and noted that most of the beds were indeed occupied. All told it wasn't a very large infirmary, housing less than fifty people, but then again, the Guardians weren't a very large organization. Not only that, but from Ashe could understand they weren't the kind of group that stayed in one place for very long. She suspected that Cygnus Base was one of the largest Guardian outposts on the continent, but there were probably at least a dozen others scattered about between Legion and Innerpeace. If need be they could always send their overflow to another base to be taken care of. It also provided the Guardians with an additional layer of security - should something happen to any single outpost, the effect on the overall Guardian infrastructure would be minimized.

_It must be a logistical nightmare to keep track of it all. The more I see of the Guardians the more I see why everyone respects Prairie so much. And whoever set all this stuff up to begin with must have been a friggin' genius. Maybe if the Hunters were this organized we wouldn't all be living in shacks._

As she was going out the door, Ashe could barely hear one of the nurses from earlier whispering to the other across a bed. "See? I told you he had good taste."

"Strong, and has a good head stuck on her shoulders. She's got my vote."

She stopped in the hallway as the door slid closed behind her, then heaved a heavy sigh. "Way to go and make everything complicated," she scolded herself. "You really need to learn to keep your nose in your own business...hey, where's Model A?" She patted the pouch on her belt where she usually kept him and felt his lumpy form inside, so she pulled him out. "What's with the silent treatment? Usually I can't get you to shut up."

"Vent said I should be quiet while we're on Cygnus Base. Not everyone knows about me yet, or that two of the four biometals are back on our side, so he just wanted to make sure we didn't start a panic."

"Because you're _real _scary." Ashe's voice dripped with sarcasm. She was about to go on and say that Vent should mind his own business, but stopped when she realized how hypocritical she was being. Instead, she simply sighed again. "I'm gonna go to my room and think. You wanna come?"

"Do I have much choice?"

Ashe thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I guess not. Sucks to be you." Then she shoved him back in his pouch and headed down the corridor.

Within minutes she'd forgotten the nurse's directions and ended up completely lost. With no idea where she was supposed to be going, she figured she'd ask someone for directions. She saw two men talking in the corridor and figured they were as good a pair to ask as any, so she walked over. One of the two, a rather large man with short-crapped brown hair, had his back to her, with his body obscuring her view of the other man. She walked over and tapped him on one of his two exceedingly broad shoulders. "Excuse me, I'm trying to find sector twelve, block four. Would you happen to know where it is?" It wasn't until after she finished speaking that she realized he wasn't wearing a Guardian uniform.

"Can't say I do ma'am, sorry. We's new here ourselves, you'll have to..." The man paused midsentence, then turned around and said, "Ashe?"

After getting a good look on his face, Ashe immediately recognized him. "Harry?! What the bloody hell are _you_ doing here?" She exclaimed happily.

"Ooch, better watch that mouth of yours little missy, else you'll scar poor Tom here's virgin little ears." Harry motioned over at his companion, who snorted.

"Yeah, 'cause I'm all puppies and rainbows over here," Tom replied sarcastically. "Yo Ashe, what's up? Glad to see you ain't dead yet. Didn't hear anything from you after you went to Legion, some of us were startin' to get a little worried."

"Ha! Like you'd ever worry about me. I'm glad to see you guys got out of town before it all hit the fan, but how did you wind up here?"

Tom looked about to answer, but Harry spoke right over him. "We got Jonas and that little old reploid guy to thank for that - what'sis name, Floove? Somethin' like that. Anyway, Jonas was in Legion when things started going nutty, so he bails as fast as he can back to the Hunter Camp - he's the fast little bugger with the expensive leg enhancements, remember? You can be sure I'll never be callin'im Chickenlegs again.

"Anyway, Jonas makes it back just in time to fill everyone in on what's goin' on. Someone took a vote - not like it matters, we're Hunters fer cryin' out loud, we don't vote on crap - and we all agreed to jump ship before whatever it was bustin' Legion to pieces hit the camp. So we're gone not even five minutes when some crazy group of blue mechies gets on our case and chases us halfway into the middle of nowhere. Five hours in we decide to just turn around and bust'em up - which we did quite finely, if I do say so myself. Unforunately nobody had the smarts to keep track of where the heck we were goin'." Harry paused a moment to shoot a glare at Tom.

"Oh bugger off, Johnny was supposed to be doing the GPS," Tom replied exasperatedly, as though they'd already had this discussion a million times before.

"Yeah yeah, and he said it was Bill, and Bill says it was Horton, and Horton says it was his old nanny from beyond the grave, and damn if it ain't all a mess. Never seen a group of people so bad at communicatin' in all my life.

"Anyway, where was I? Right, so we wander around for a day or so until we come across this big mess of a battle out in the middle of the boonies. We get closer and we find more o'those blue mechaniloid creepies fightin' with some guys in green outfits. Someone speaks up that the greenies are these Guardian blokes and they're on our side, so we figger we'll help'em out a bit - y'know, a rocket here, a grenade there, wham-bam thank'ya ma'am kinda dealy. No biggie.

"Somewhere in the middle of it all Mack and his buddies go and rescue someone important. Next thing y'know he's gettin' calls from this Floove guy saying we should come on over for a holler. Ten minutes later, two hundred Hunters are walkin' into a base nobody's ever heard of with all the Greenshirt's bowin' and scrapin' like we just fell outta heaven."

"Wow, that's some story," Ashe said with a chuckle after the big man had finished. "Sounds like both you and the Guardians were lucky that you happened by. They have must have been in a pretty tough spot. I just got kicked out of the infirmary, they're full to bursting in there."

"Infirmary? What were you doing in the infirmary?" Tom asked, neatly cutting off Harry. "You're not gonna turn into a psycho zombie, are you? We heard that's what's happening to all the people left in Legion."

"You think they'd let me out of the infirmary if I was? I'm fine, I just had a little...accident. So how many of you made it out? Have you seen Tony?"

After a few more minutes of gossiping and finding out the latest news - apparently it was Aile that Mack and company had rescued; how interesting - Ashe bid the two men goodbye, then continued on her quest to find the elusive sector twelve, block four. Eventually she asked a guard outside of one of the transerver rooms where it was, and he said it would be faster to just hop in and ask the guy on the other end where to go.

She finally arrived at her room a half hour after leaving the infirmary, which, as it turned out, was only a few minutes away. She clipped off her belt and threw it on a nearby table, then flopped down heavily on the less-than-soft mattress in the corner. Everything was furnished exactly like the room she'd had the Guardian Base, but she'd expected as much - she was actually surprised she hadn't just been sent back to her previous room. She supposed that since she wasn't even a member of the Guardians she should probably be thankful she was getting anything at all. They weren't exactly a charity organization.

"Finally! I thought we'd never get here." Model A floated out of his pouch and looked around the room. "This base must be huge. Either that or you got lost."

"Shut up," Ashe replied grumpily, then threw her arms over her eyes with a sigh. "It gave me time to think."

"What are you thinking about?"

Another sigh. "Stuff."

"Like?"

He obviously wasn't getting the point - she didn't really want to talk about it. _But then again...maybe talking about it is what I need._ "Like what I'm going to do when this is all over. Where am I going to go? Where am I going to live? Legion is pretty much trashed, and the Hunter Camp is gone too. I know Prairie would probably be overjoyed if I said I wanted to join the Guardians, but...I don't know. They're just a little too...square."

"Um...Ashe, there's something I should probably tell you."

"You prod me until I finally want to talk, then before I can even get started you interrupt-"

"Prairie's gone, Ashe."

An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment before Ashe sat up and looked at the biometal on the table. "What do you mean, 'gone'?"

"I mean she didn't make it. Zero came back from Omega's room alone."

There were another few moments of silence as Ashe processed that thought, when she finally spoke, it was a tight, controlled voice.

"You need to tell me _exactly_ what happened down there."

* * *

Aile stared sullenly at the ground from her bed, where she'd landed after her knees gave out when Vent gave her the news about Prairie. He'd told her about Zero and Model P and Ashe first, but all that had since flown out of her head. It all seemed so small and insignificant in comparison...everything did.

"How...how did she...?" She finally managed to stammer out, but her voice failed her before she could finish.

"I don't know. Zero wouldn't tell me. He just said that Prairie sacrificed herself so that he could defeat Omega, and that he couldn't have won without her. He tried to stop her but she wouldn't listen." Vent shook his head. "I don't know whether to believe him or not. He came out of that room without a scratch, and with so much power...you should have seen some of the things he did to the Pantheons blocking the exit. With those abilities, how could he let Prairie die?"

"Omega's power is to destroy, not to protect," Model P said from the nearby table, where he sat with Model X and Model L. "Besides, he would not have had that power until after-"

"Hush, Model P," Model L interrupted. "That's not important. Omega is gone, and that's all that matters. You two should believe Zero's words; he has no reason to deceive you."

"But if he has nothing to hide, why did he leave her down there?" Vent argued angrily. "We could have found a way to bring her too, if we'd just spent some time and-"

"Did it ever occur to you that Zero doesn't need to be here at all?"

Vent blinked in surprise at Model X's quiet comment. "What?"

"Zero has already left this world behind once. Wherever he went, I'm sure he didn't _have_ to come back here and help us. The troubles of the world really aren't his problem anymore. So if he's here because he wants to be, what reason could he possibly have to deceive you?"

Vent couldn't come up with a counter, but he still looked angry. Aile gently took one hand in both of hers. "Prairie trusted him, so much that she was willing to give her life for him," she said calmly and quietly. "Even if you don't trust Zero, can't you at least trust Prairie?"

Aile's words were finally enough to make Vent calm down. He sat down on the bed beside her with a frustrated sigh. "Dammit, I know you're all right, but...it's just not fair! It makes me so...so..angry! I keep asking myself, why did this have to happen to her? What did she do to deserve this?"

"Sometimes life isn't fair," Model L agreed. "However, that doesn't mean you should try and blame Zero for it. The only one at fault here was Omega, and believe me when I say you aren't the only one with a grudge against him. But now he's gone, and you'll just have to deal with that."

Aile could see an argument forming in Vent's mind, but he remained silent. _What Model L says might be true, but she doesn't have to be so blunt about it..._she decided it might be best to give Vent some time alone to think things through. Besides, she needed some time herself.

"I'm going to go for a walk. I'll be back in a little while. Try to calm down, okay? We still have a lot of work to do and I don't want to lose you because you got angry and did something stupid."

"Yeah," Vent replied unenthusiastically. Unsatisfied, Aile stared stubbornly at him with an _I don't believe you_ look on her face for a few moments. "All right, I mean it, okay? I'm just going to stay here for a while and...calm down."

"Good," Aile said with a nod, then leaned over and embraced him fiercely, pressing her face against his shoulder so hard it hurt. "Don't you ever leave me alone. I love you, Vent."

"I love you too, Sis."

A few moments and another small smile later, Aile got up and grabbed Model L off the table, slipping her into a pocket. Before she could leave, Model P hovered up to her face.

"If you wouldn't mind, would you mind taking me along as well? I believe I should be reporting to Fleuve to discuss my findings, however I am quite unable to get there myself."

"Oh, sure," Aile said, then deposited him in her other pocket. She turned and gave Vent one last look before leaving, but he was already staring blankly at the ceiling, absorbed in his own thoughts.

Out in the hallway, she took a deep, calming breath. She'd been playing it cool for Vent's sake, but inside she was still a toiling sea of emotions. It wasn't every day that one of your best friends was suddenly ripped from your life, even among the Guardians. As she was quickly discovering, she could put on a strong face for Vent, but when it came to herself, the facade shattered like glass.

"Oh, Prairie...what are we going to do without you?" She said quietly into the air, low enough that the biometals in her pockets couldn't hear her.

She didn't really know where she was going, but she needed to think, and she couldn't get it done around Vent. She decided she may as well head for the command room and deliver Model P before she forgot.

She was halfway there when she came across Fleuve in the hallway. His head was buried so deep in a report that he didn't seem to be paying attention to where he was going. Aile saw several other Guardians step out of his way as he walked right through where they'd just been standing, completely oblivious to the world around him. He would have walked straight past Aile as well had she not tapped him gently on the shoulder as he went by.

"Oh!' The little reploid man exclaimed, jumping a few inches into the air in surprise. "Aile! What are you doing here? I was just...wait a moment. Where am I? I was heading for the command room..."

"Then you're going the wrong way, Fleuve." She smiled and pointed down the hallway he'd just come from. "The command room's that way."

"Oh, yes, I see." He chuckled nervously. "I suppose I look rather foolish right now, don't I? Walking around the hallways with my head in the clouds like a recruit..."

"Oh, I don't know about foolish, but you definitely scared a trooper or two when you almost walked over them. You should pay more attention to where you're going and less to whatever's on that datapad."

"Listen to you, lecturing me like I just walked off the assembly line. It's not this datapad that's distracting me, it's..." Fleuve caught himself as he realized what he'd been about to say. "That is, Zero reported in to me, and we discussed some, ah...unfortunate events..."

"Relax, Fleuve, Vent told me everything. I already know about..." She glanced around at the Guardians passing nearby. "That. I assume there's a reason nobody's made an announcement of some kind about it yet?"

"Zero and I have talked, and he is going to address the entire organization about it this evening when we announce our battleplan. At the moment, all I can tell you for sure is that...the situation is being handled with the utmost delicacy."

"Of course, I never doubted it would be. So, when are we drawing this 'battleplan'?"

"In a half hour or so, in the Cygnus briefing room. I was actually on my way to the command room to inform all squad commanders about it. I will expect you and your brother to be there, of course, and I'm sure Model L would be able to provide valuable insight as well. That Ashe girl is welcome too, if she likes - honestly I'd prefer for her to be there, but I can't give her orders since she's not officially one of us. I haven't yet determined the exact whereabouts of Model P, but I asked Zero to bring him along."

"Well, that's actually why I was coming to see you." Aile reached into her pocket and pulled out the biometal in question. "Vent had him, and he asked me to bring him to you. I assumed you'd be in the command room."

"And you'd have been right, if not for...well, nevermind." He looked at Model P and held out a hand. "Hello, Model P. It's good to see you back among us once again."

Since Fleuve couldn't hear him even if he said anything, Model P simply bobbed up and down in acknowledgment, then floated over and landed in his outstretched palm. Despite not being able to talk they always seemed to understand one another just fine.

"Well then, I've things to do before the meeting. I'll be seeing you shortly." Fleuve turned and walked back the way he'd come, earning a few confused looks from the Guardians he passed by for the second time in as many minutes. Aile couldn't help but smile at the little man as he waddled off, giving instructions and posing questions to Model P, who remained, of course, completely silent.

"I'm glad those two get along so well," she remarked quietly. "It must be kind of lonely for Model P, not having a Chosen One."

"You needn't worry about Model P feeling 'lonely'," Model L's muffled voice said from the depths of her other pocket. Aile fished the biometal out so she could hear her better. "He's always been a lone wolf; it came with his job description. I'm actually more surprised that he seems to have latched onto Fleuve so well. I've never heard of him ever being 'friendly', per se, but that little fellow is likely the closest thing he's ever found to a friend.

"Then again, I'm also surprised Fleuve was so out of sorts about Prairie. He never seemed to me to be the kind to care. I guess even my assumptions can be wrong on occasion."

"Don't be so mean, Model L! Fleuve may be a little...odd...at times, but he's still a good person! He has feelings too!"

"Maybe so, but he's rather adept at forgetting about everyone else's whenever it suits him. Spend eight hours on his lab bench being probed by every sort of scan, ray, and beam under the sun and you'll see what I mean. He needs to learn to respect a woman's privacy, you know?"

"Oh, you're terrible."

She put the biometal back in her pocket and resumed her walk around the base. Eventually she found the flow of people going by the halls too distracting, so she headed for the cafeteria. Being the middle of the afternoon it was relatively empty, giving her a quiet place to sit. She went over and sat down in a secluded spot in a corner, away from the doors, so she was effectively by herself.

Now that she actually had the time and an appropriate place to think, Aile discovered that she couldn't seem to think about anything at all. The only thing running through her head was the sound of Vent's voice saying _Prairie's dead_ over and over, to the point that she wasn't even sure he'd said it anymore. Looking back on it, it all seemed so surreal, like it never really happened, even though it was just ten minutes ago. She thought that she should be feeling sad, or crying, or _anything,_ but instead all she could muster up was a strange numb feeling, like something was...missing.

After five minutes of staring blankly and thinking about nothing at all, Model L floated up and settled on the table in front of her. Aile sighed. "No, I don't particularly feel like talking about it, but you're going to convince me to do it anyway."

"Good, we can skip right to that part then. So, let's hear it."

"Well...what do you expect? I miss her." She sniffed. "I miss her a lot."

"And?"

"And...and I don't know what to do. I feel like a part of me is missing, like there's a giant dead spot somewhere. She's been there for so long, it's just so weird that she's suddenly gone, and..." She flopped her head down on the table between her arms and tried to sigh, but it came out more like a sob. "I just start thinking about what it'll be like without her and...Model L, I miss her so much."

It seemed like just those few words were enough to snap Aile out of her funk, and she suddenly found herself crying silently and uncontrollably into the tabletop. Model L didn't say a word and watched while all of the emotions the girl had been holding back poured themselves out onto the table as she thought back on all the times Prairie had been there for her, with the knowledge that now she never would be again.

It was some time later before Aile finally lifted her head just barely enough to wipe her eyes with a sleeve. She looked over at the still-silent Model L. "Aren't you going to lecture me for being a weak little brat or something?"

"Now why would I do that?" Model L replied gently. "Crying over a lost comrade is hardly something I would call a weakness. If Prairie was important to you, it's only appropriate that you show how much you cared for her. I was actually somewhat impressed that you handled it as well as you did, not collapsing in your room as soon as Vent told you about it."

"Well, I was pretty numb about the whole thing until you made me start talking..."

"Yes, and that wasn't very healthy. If you didn't let those feelings out now they may hamper you later, when your life depends on it. It's better to get it all out of the way now so that you have a clear conscience and sense of purpose for the trails that yet lay in wait for us."

"Kinda like ripping off a bandage, huh?" Aile said with a sniff.

"I wasn't aware adhesive bandages were still in use these days, but yes, I suppose the comparison works well enough. Tell me, after letting all that out, don't you feel a little bit better?"

"I guess, yeah...a little. It still hurts though." Thoughts of Prairie popped unbidden into her mind and she almost started crying again, but this time she managed to fight the tears back.

"I'm afraid that's never going to go away. It may dull to the point that you can ignore it, but it will never truly be gone. That's just something you - and everyone else who knew and loved Prairie - are going to have to deal with. That's what it means to die, m'dear, and there's no two ways about it. Sometimes life just sucks."

"If life sucks so much, how come all I want is for Prairie to have hers back?" Aile stared blankly ahead for a moment, then sighed shakily. "You seem to know an awful lot about this. Model L, did you ever...lose someone important? While you were alive, I mean."

A moment of silence. "Yes. It wasn't the same sort of relationship that you and Prairie shared, but...suffice to say I cared for this person very deeply. Losing him was like...losing a piece of myself."

The girl nodded. "Yeah, that's how it feels to me, too. Don't worry, I won't ask for any details."

Model L barked another of her amused little laughs. "Good, because I'm not sure I could give them to you. The entire affair is rather...complicated."

"Um...right." Aile sniffed one more time and gave her eyes a quick wipe with her sleeve, then stood. "Well, I guess I'd better go tell Vent about Fleuve's planning meeting. And make sure he hasn't started doing something stupid like blaming himself."

"Yes, men have a habit of doing silly things like that," Model L agreed. Aile picked the biometal up and began to slip it into her pocket, but Model L wasn't finished. "You know, I meant what I said earlier. You've grown a lot over the past few days. I'm very proud of you."

Aile paused for a moment to blush, then smiled. "What can I say? I have a good role model." Then she dropped the biometal into her pocket, took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and headed out of the cafeteria in a much better state of mind than when she went in.

* * *

"Well, that sucks," Ashe said when Model A finished relating the events she'd missed. "Just when I was getting to like her she goes and gets herself killed."

"Yeah, not to mention you made Vent carry you all the way back here again. I'm really started to feel sorry for that guy. You should probably stop passing out around him or one of these times he's just going to leave you behind."

Ashe groaned. "Oh man, don't remind me. I'd totally deserve it if he did. I feel like such a jerk right now..."

"I _told_ you you'd regret making me dress you up as Prairie."

"I know, I know! I finally worked up the nerve and was going to tell him, but that stupid Siarnaq - er, Model P - just _had_ to show up at the _worst_ possible time...Gah! What the heck is _wrong_ with me lately? I feel all...messed up inside." She flopped back and laid down on the semi-comfortable bed to think, staring at the stark white ceiling that was as blank as her brain.

"You're just not used to thinking about other people so much."

She shot the biometal a glare. "You're not helping."

"I mean it, really! Usually you just do what you feel like 'cause nobody else really matters, right? You're not used to having other people to care about. Just stop worrying about it so much and be yourself and you'll probably feel a lot better."

Ashe rolled over with a grunt. "Ugh. Of all the times to start sounding smart, why did you have to pick _now_..."

"Hey, I was always smart! You just never listened to me."

"Whatever. That still doesn't help me figure out what I should do. One of Vent's best friends just died, and I basically lied to him for no good reason. I can't just go over there and say 'hey, sorry I pretended to be your best friend, too bad she died later, let's grab some dinner'."

"Of course not, it's only lunchtime."

"See, this is why I never listen to you. You've totally missed the point."

"I did not! I just don't see what the big deal is. Sure you made a mistake, but Vent's a pretty understanding guy, he'll forgive you. Right now I think he'd much rather just enjoy your company."

"He's probably got his hands full with his sister," Ashe scoffed, dismissing the idea with a wave. "She gets so worked up over everything, she's probably bawling her eyes out at the moment. Not that I'd really blame her..."

"Well, maybe that's all the more reason to go see him. Besides, he was pretty worried about you right up until he got you into the infirmary and had you checked out, even after he heard about Prairie. It would probably make him feel better to know you're all right."

"With all the other stuff that's going on, you honestly think he's worried about _me_?"

"Yeah."

After thinking about it for a little while, Ashe breathed out a heavy sigh. "I don't know..."

"Why are you being so stubborn all of a sudden? Look, do you like him or not?"

"...I don't know. I've never 'liked' anyone before. ...I guess so?"

"Then what's your problem? Whenever you see something you want, you go out and get it, right? That's how you found me."

"But this is different! I can't just...you know..."

"Walk up to him and tell him everything? Why not? The worst he's going to do is say no. I doubt that's the worst anyone's ever done to you."

The room was filled with a nervous silence as Ashe considered her options. Several minutes later, she abruptly bolted upright, startling Model A. "You know what? You're right."

"You don't have to sound so surprised..."

"At first I thought you were being stupid, but the more I think about it, the better it sounds. If Vent really is the kind of person I think he is, the best thing I can do is just tell the truth and see what happens. Either way I'll be better off than I am now, worrying about crap like this when there's a war for survival going on."

"See, that's the Ashe I know," Model A said, sounding very satisfied with himself.

"Yeah, sorry for being a ditz," Ashe replied as she hopped off the bed and headed for the door. "Well, no time like the present. I'll let you know how it goes." Then she was gone.

"Hey, wait!" The biometal yelled at the closed door. "Damn...I suppose I should have told her that Model P already spilled the beans...oh well."

Vent hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep until the door buzzing woke him up. He'd been lying on his bed thinking about Ashe and Prairie and everything else and it had just crept up on him. With all of the things that had happened in the past day he hadn't even noticed how tired he was. He couldn't have been out for more than a few minutes or Model X - currently trapped in his pants pocket - would have prodded him. He definitely didn't feel any less tired.

The door buzzed again.

"All right, I'm coming," he grumbled, pushing himself off of the bed and dragging his feet over to the door. He opened it up and blinked in surprise when he found Ashe standing on the other side. "Ashe? I didn't realize you were awake already. What are you doing here?"

"Um, hi," she replied with a little wave. "Thought I should stop by and thank you for hauling my butt back to base for the third time in as many days. Mind if I come in?"

"Oh, uh, not at all."

"Thanks." She looked around as she entered the room. "Aile's not here?"

"No, she went for a walk."

"Oh, I see."

There was a moment of awkward silence as the two stared silently at each other. They both had so many things they wanted to say, to the point where neither of them knew where to start.

"So, I uh...I heard about Prairie. That...um...sucks."

"Yeah, no kidding," Vent replied as he went and plopped back down on the bottom bunk, staring pointlessly at the ceiling. "Understatement of the century. It's like...so unbelievable that it doesn't even seem real. Like I can just go up to the command room and she'll still be there, handing out orders like nothing's changed."

"Yeah, she was pretty good at that," Ashe agreed as she sat down carefully beside him. "I only met her a few days ago so I didn't know her as well as the rest of you guys, but now I'm sad that I won't even have the opportunity. She seems like the kind of person I would have gotten along with."

"You would have. Everyone liked Prairie. She was like...well, not really a sister - one of those is enough, thank you - but...not really a mom, either. Certainly not a girlfriend, that would have just been...weird. She was, I don't know...one of those moms that doesn't feel like a mom, she's more like a friend. You know?"

"Uh...can't say that I do," Ashe replied, shrugging. "Lack of parents, remember?"

"Oh, right. Sorry. It's...hard to explain."

"It's all right, I think I basically get the idea. So, then..." Ashe placed a comforting hand on Vent's leg. "How're you doing?"

"All right, I guess." Vent sighed heavily. "When we got back I was pretty angry at Zero, first for letting it happen and then for leaving her behind, but Aile convinced me that I was just being an idiot. It wasn't anybody's fault. These things just...happen. Especially in our line of work."

"See? I told you, you should listen to your sister more often, she knows what she's talking about. Hearing about a Hunter that had gone out to get a bounty and never come back - or worse, come back in more than one piece - wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence either. I guess that's another reason why I never really made friends with any of them.

"Besides, didn't Prairie say she and Zero had known each other, way back in the day? Those two seemed pretty close to me. I bet it hurt him to let go at least as much as it hurt you."

"Yeah, you're probably right about that, too." Vent abruptly sat up, leaning over to stare at the floor. "Anyway, the whole thing has got me thinking about a lot of...stuff. Stuff I didn't really want to think about before."

"Oh? Is the almighty Model X Mega Man suddenly feeling mortal?" Ashe joked.

"Something like that," Vent replied with a smile, but his voice was dark and serious. "With Prairie gone it's made me realize that, as much as I hate to admit it, with all the heavy stuff going on right now there's no guarantee that we'll all make it out of this alive. There are some people who are very important to me, that I would never want to live without, and I want to make sure I can face whatever comes next without any regrets, without leaving anything unsaid or undone. Every moment could be our last."

"Gee, way to be a downer. You're supposed to inspire confidence in the troops before the final battle, not tell them they're all going to die."

"Sorry, I guess that did come out a bit darker than I intended," Vent said sheepishly, scratching his head. "Look, I'm not trying to go all morbid and depressing on you, I just...have something I need to say, because I've realized that this might be my last chance to say it.

"Ashe, I...uh...that is, you...um..." He struggled to find the words for what he wanted to say. _Come on Vent, you finally worked up the courage to say something, this is your chance! Stop screwing it up! _But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even bring himself to look her in the eye. "Okay, look. Ashe, you and I...we...um..." _Dammit, why can't I just-_

His train of thought abruptly crashed and burned in a glorious pillar of flames when Ashe pressed up against him, then leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips. His eyes went wide in shock. He didn't know what to do, so he didn't do anything. Thinking back on it later, he probably would have enjoyed it if he weren't completely blown out of his mind.

After the longest three seconds of his life, Ashe pulled away again, though she was still leaning over him. "Is that what you were trying to say?" She asked.

"Um...yes. More or less."

"Good," Ashe said, letting out a breath so big she practically fell over. "Otherwise I'd be feeling _really_ stupid right about now."

"No, it's my fault. Apparently I'm really bad at these sorts of things."

"No kidding. That's why you've got a smart girl like me who can figure these things out for you."

Then he yelped as he felt one of Ashe's hands slip into his pocket and start fishing around. "Whoa, hey, wait a minute, what're you-"

"Calm down," she said with a giggle, then pulled out Model X, waving him in the air. "Not exactly the most comfortable thing to have pressing against your leg."

"Well, sorry for not being born a sphere," Model X huffed, which made Ashe giggle again.

"Wow, listen to me," she remarked to herself out loud, "I can't stop giggling like some ditzy schoolgirl." That thought made her giggle again. "But right now, I think I'm okay with that." Then she got up and went over to the door, pressing the panel to open it.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Model X exclaimed as she tossed him into the hallway, where he floated helplessly in midair. Ashe crossed her arms and cleared her throat in mock seriousness.

"Ahem. I'm a Hunter, and as such, it is my prerogative to spend some time enjoying my latest bounty." She was trying to remain serious, but the thought of doing just that made her face crack into a huge grin. "Do me a favor and watch the door?" The door slid shut again and she hit the button to lock it, then walked back over to Vent, who was still sitting on the bed in a stunned silence.

"I don't think that was-" he started, but Ashe stopped him with a finger on the lips.

"See, there's your problem. You think _way_ too much. Now, let's see if you're a better kisser when you aren't caught like a squirrel in front of a Crushpactor."

* * *

**Author's Note**

Two updates in one month, gasp! It's actually almost 3 if you could the Christmas special but a few parts of this took a few days extra to get written so I missed it. Ah well.

This one's a bit shorter than the past few, mostly because I had intended it to include the next 3-4 scenes as well. However, it was getting pretty long as it was, and I thought it would be good to end a chapter on a happy note for a change. I've been waiting a _really_ long time to write that Ashe/Vent scene, so that was fun. The Aile/Leviathan bit came out kind of rough but it's not horrible so I left it in. You didn't get to see Vent do most of his emo'ing since he did it on the way back from Area M, and it would be similar to Aile's so I didn't see the point in doing it twice. You'll see Zero dealing with it in the next chapter - it's one of those scenes that was going to be in this one but got cut.

"Relief" is the song that plays when Ashe wakes up in Hunter Camp after the Ouroboros blows up. I think. I can't think of anywhere else it would play, anyway. It's a pretty boring song but it fits the chapter. This is the brief little period of relief in between the Omega fight and the Legion assault. So for those of you who were itching to see Zero blow crap up, just hang on a couple more chapters. :)

On that topic, the next chapter might be a little short since it's basically this chapter's leftovers. I won't know exactly how long it'll be until I actually write it, but I already know where it's going to end and there isn't all that much to say. This is actually good, since I write these at work nowadays and I've got a release deadline coming up, which means I'm really busy and don't have as much time to slack off and write. Anyway, we'll see if I can get it up near the beginning of March.

There were a few people I messaged something to the effect of "wait until the end of the next part"...well, I cut that bit. It'll be showing up a bit later than planned. You know who you are. If not, don't worry about it. :)

For those who couldn't figure it out, the "special someone" Leviathan referred to is the original X. You have to admit, he was pretty damned important. And since there's the Original X, two Copy X's, Cyber-elf X, and Model X to deal with, you can see why it would get complicated to explain to Aile what happened to him. ;)

**Writer's Note**

Yes, a new section. This chapter is a little different from the rest, so I thought I'd explain exactly what I was doing here. This is mostly for those people who do their own writing; if not, feel free to skip it.

This chapter is actually very important to me because as I was writing it, a friend of mine's husband (who was also a friend of mine) passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. So even while I was writing scenes of my characters having to deal with a death like that, I was experiencing it in real life. To that effect, I tried to replicate the sorts of feelings that came from that event within my own characters. I'm not certain how well I succeeded, but considering I've never done anything like this before I don't think it turned out too badly.

The main thing I was trying to do in this chapter was show how different people react to death in different ways, and at the same time how people have different reactions to it depending on how close they were to the person who died. Some of the lines the characters say here are things that I was actually hearing people say. Sometimes it seems to sound repetitive, but when you're trying to deal with the grief of losing a loved one, you really do tend to repeat yourself a lot. There really aren't adequate words to describe it, so you just end up using the same ones over and over again. Normally I try to void repetition in my writing, but in this case I left it in on purpose to make a point.

Anyway, I tried to show each character dealing with Prairie's death in a different way based on 1) their personal character, and 2) their relationship to Prairie. He's a quick breakdown.

Zero perhaps feels Prairie's death most intently, but he's also had the most experience with it - you'll be seeing more of his reaction next chapter, but don't forget the last line of part 20.

Vent and Aile were very close to her, but they haven't had the centuries of hardening experiences that Zero has had, so they don't hold up so well. Vent feels the need to blame someone, anyone - having someone taken from you can really feel incredibly unfair sometimes, and if you can only find someone to blame it would make you feel a little bit better. Of course from the outside this seems silly, but trust me, when you're in his place it feels perfectly justified.

Aile is struck numb and just can't seem to process it - anyone who's actually had someone close to them pass away suddenly knows exactly what this feels like. I'm not sure I conveyed it very well, but hopefully it was good enough that you knew what I was getting at. There always comes the inevitable point where it suddenly hits you like a ton of bricks and you can't think of anything else; Model L saw what was going on, so she prodded Aile until it happened. Then everything sort of tumbles loose and you become incoherent for a few days. Nobody would want to read about that so I made Aile a little tougher so we could move on with the plot.

Ashe barely knew Prairie, but she sympathizes with the others because she knows how much Prairie meant to them. She also feels sad that she never got the chance to meet such a wonderful person. This is pretty much how I felt when my friend's husband died - I'd never really talked to him much, but he seemed like a really great guy that I could have gotten to know, and now I'll never get a chance to. She handles Prairie's death rather calmly, but that doesn't mean she doesn't feel it.

Fleuve didn't really know Prairie personally, but through their work. It's a different sort of relationship, but that doesn't mean it doesn't affect him. I thought he seemed rather cold and uncaring in the scene with Zero, because I was trying to make him out to be pragmatic and logical, but I felt that made him too cold and robotic so I added him into that scene later so we can see that he really is torn up about it, he just hides it really well. Of all the characters I think I handled him the worst, but he's also the most minor of them all so I don't think it's a big deal.

So, there you go. That's a little window into the thought process behind this chapter. I've been thinking about it for a long time now which I think is why I could write it so quickly. I don't plan on rambling on at the bottom of every chapter like this, but like I said, this one tugs at my strings for personal reasons and I thought some people might like to have a peek at the inner workings of a chapter. Thanks for bearing with me just this once.

As always, thanks to all my readers/reviewers. Logging into an inbox full of review/favorite/alert notices is always a nice feeling. :)

That's all for now. I'm off to listen to more Cosmoflips. Cookies to whoever knows what I'm talking about without Googling it first!

'Til next time!


	25. Part 23: Den of Hunters

Part 23: Den of Hunters

After a time, Aile wandered her way back to her room. She needed to tell Vent about the upcoming meeting, then she figured she'd go talk to Ashe for a while and drag her along too. Something about the young Hunter girl always cheered her up.

As she approached the door she saw Model X hovering in the hallway. "Why are you out here by yourself?" She asked the biometal.

"Aile!" Model X exclaimed, having not noticed her approaching. "Well, I'm...watching the door."

"Why? Where'd Vent go?" "Nowhere, he's still inside. I was...temporarily removed from the premises."

She raised a curious eyebrow. "And why would Vent kick his own biometal out into the hallway?"

"He didn't, Ashe did."

In the depths of Aile's pockets, Model L suddenly started laughing. Aile looked down in her direction, confused. "I don't get it, what's so funny?"

Model L just laughed harder. "Oh, this is too precious. Not only is Ashe proving to be quite the source of entertainment, but you can't see it even when it's happening right in front of your nose! Oh Aile, you're so _blissfully_ ignorant!" Then she dissolved into laughter again.

"I am _not_ ignorant! I just don't see why Vent and Ashe being together in our bedroom without their biometals is-"

It clicked.

"Oh. _**Oh.**_"

She felt her face heat up as she began to blush the deepest shade of crimson ever seen on a human being. Her face split into huge grin.

"Yes. Now you see my predicament," Model X observed.

No matter how hard she tried Aile couldn't keep the grin off her face. She cleared her throat theatrically. "So, um...how long have they been...you know..."

"Twenty minutes."

"_Twenty min-_...ahem. I see."

Model L howled again - if she'd still possessed a body she would have been rolling on the floor and bursting at the seams. As it was, it was a good thing that only Chosen Ones could hear biometals, because she would have drawn the attention of the entire base otherwise.

"Well, do you think you could...um...tell them that we're...!" Aile rushed out the last bit before she started giggling madly to herself.

"So now I'm a doorman _and_ an answering machine?" Model X said levelly. He was obviously not amused.

"Oh, stuff it, X," Model L managed to croak out. "Even the real X knew when to have a good laugh. C'mon Aile, let's go spread some gossip!"

"Model L, I'm shocked you even suggest such a thing! A proper lady should _never_ spread gossip!" Aile's sincerity was so fake that Model X winced...or would have, anyway.

"No, a proper lady should never get _caught_. Now come on, before anyone can beat us to it!"

Aile ran off down the corridor, still giggling like mad, leaving Model X alone in the corridor once again, wondering why he'd ever allied himself with these people.

* * *

"Aile's going to be back soon."

"So? Do you care if she finds out?"

"No, not really. She'll find out eventually anyway."

"Then shut up and enjoy it."

Ashe snuggled closer to Vent's shoulder and sighed happily. Even though the world outside was falling apart around them, as long as she was here with Vent, it felt like everything was going to be okay. She knew it didn't really make sense, but then again, neither did a lot of things she'd seen in the past few days. She was willing to live with just one more unexplainable event, especially if it made her feel so good inside.

That was also what made the guilt she felt about deceiving him even worse. She was incredibly angry with herself for doing it and was still tearing herself up inside over it, but she just couldn't seem to bring herself to tell him. After enjoying the closeness for a little while longer, she decided she couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Vent, there's something I need to tell you," she began quietly. "You know the other night, before we went after Omega, when you were out on the deck and Prairie came out to talk..."

"That was you, I know," he finished.

"You do?" She bolted upright in surprise, nearly bashing her head off the bottom of the top bunk. "I'm sorry Vent, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to - wait, when did you figure it out? How long have you known?"

"Model P told me while we were down in Area M. I didn't suspect a thing, but apparently he saw right through you."

"I...see." Her eyes drifted to stare at the wall. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lie to you. It's just that...well, I was really mixed up at the time, and I was trying to sort some things out. I don't really know why I thought pretending to be Prairie was a good idea; Model A told me I'd regret it later, and as much as I hate to admit it, he was right. I felt really bad about the whole thing afterwards, which only made me even more confused. I couldn't bring myself to tell you about it until I finally couldn't take it anymore. I tried to tell you while we waited for Zero and Prairie, but then Model P hit me with that...whatever it was, and when I woke up I'd lost my nerve again. I was originally coming over here to tell you, but, well...we got a little distracted." She sighed heavily. "I'll understand if you're angry. I know I'd be pretty upset if you did something like that to me."

"No, it's okay. I understand why you did it. In the end you came out and told me, so it's not like you were trying to be mean or subversive or anything. Just don't do it again, all right?"

"Of course not! Especially considering...well, you know. It would just be...weird."

They both heard a ding in the air as the base intercom system turned on and Fleuve's voice filled the air. "May I have your attention please, could all squad commanders please meet in the east wing briefing room at sixteen hundred hours for a strategy meeting. Sorry for the short notice. Thank you." The system turned off with another ding.

"He's certainly got a way with words," Vent remarked.

"And talk about crappy timing! There's no way we're going to be done in time for dinner."

"Glad to see you've got your priorities straight." With a flick of his legs Vent went from lying down on his back to standing on feet in one smooth motion. "You don't have to come, you know. You're not a squad commander."

"Yeah, but we both know I should be there anyway. Besides, with all the rest of you locked up in a briefing room, what else am I going to do with my time?"

He nodded in understanding, then offered her a hand up. "Well then, we should be going."

"Oh my, look how well I've trained you already." She couldn't help but smirk as she took the offered hand to stand, then squeaked in surprise when Vent suddenly pulled her close, their noses nearly touching.

"Or maybe I'm just playing along so I get what I want," he teased with a grin.

"Yes, well...it helps when we want the same thing." She grinned back.

They were both late for the meeting.

* * *

The briefing room was a big, official thing, with a podium at the front and rows upon rows of chairs in front of it, enough for over a hundred and fifty people. It was the largest single room in Cygnus base, apart from the cafeteria, built with the intention that it would be used for large briefings such as the one that was taking place right now. However, even with every squad leader in the Guardians present it was barely half full. The Guardians had never really been a big organization, so it was a mystery why someone had thought they needed such a large room.

At least, that's what Fleuve was thinking as he stood behind the podium, watching as all of the squad commanders filed in through the big double-doors at the back. Aile stood to one side with a datapad, taking names and ticking them off a list as each green-clad commander identified themselves. That had been Fleuve's decision - he wanted to make absolutely sure everyone was here. The success of their plan depended on everyone knowing his or her part.

For the time being, Fleuve simply stood silently on a stool behind the podium - he was too short to reach the top - and tried to look confident, collected, and impressive as he faced the crowd, carefully keeping his expression unreadable. If he were to the let the amount of nervousness and uncertainty he actually felt show on his face the entire room would probably have started crying in hopelessness by now. Although, it didn't really matter - every pair of eyes in the room was too busy looking at the figure to his left to even notice him.

There certainly was something about Zero's new body that seemed to draw the eye towards it. Fleuve couldn't explain it, but even his mere presence seemed to command one's attention. It may have just been that he didn't look like any model of modern reploid. In fact, the red armor and helmet would have seemed completely out of place on a normal reploid, yet in Zero's case Fleuve couldn't picture him without them. Whatever it was, it gave Zero the attention of everyone in the entire room, and he hadn't even moved yet.

The more Fleuve studied Zero's appearance, the more he saw the resemblance it had to a Mega Man. In fact, they were so similar that he had to wonder if it was a coincidence or not. Were there other reploids in Zero's time that were as powerful as the Mega Men of today? Were all of the reploids in Zero's time designed like that? Prior to the briefing, he'd asked Zero that very question.

"No," he'd replied. "Only the ones meant for killing."

That cryptic answer only served to confuse Fleuve even further, so he decided to drop the subject. The idea of a reploid being created solely for the purpose of destruction still baffled him - the closest things he could think of to that were the Pseudoroids, but there were a lot of eccentricities about them that he couldn't explain. Of course, what was even more confusing was the fact that one of these killing machines was now leading them into war against what had been, until a fews days ago, their own government.

Fleuve glanced over at Zero, who seemed calm and completely at ease, leaning casually against the back wall with his arms crossed. Nevertheless, Fleuve knew he could go from a relaxed observer to a merciless killing machine in the blink of an eye. Every inch of his frame seemed designed to help kill in the most efficient way possible, from the sleek red chestplate to the pitch-black joint coverings. It was incredibly intimidating, and Zero wasn't even trying. _Well, at least he's on our side...but why doesn't that make me feel any better?_

Aile suddenly appeared at Fleuve's elbow, waving her datapad under his nose. He snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that the doors had closed and the final few arrivals were now finding their seats.

"All squad commanders present and accounted for, Commander sir, save three."

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that..." Fleuve grumbled as he swiped the pad from her hands. "Who are we missing?"

"Two are from Far East Outpost thirteen. Apparently their transerver is broken and they can't make it for another four hours. We'll just have to get them and their squads caught up on the details once they arrive. The third is my lazy brother."

"Vent, late? That's not like him. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Ashe either. Any idea what they might be doing?"

Aile's face suddenly flushed red. She opened her mouth to say something, then snapped it shut again as she decided against it. Fleuve raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her but she conspicuously averted her eyes, too modest to say any of the variety of remarks that came to mind.

Model L, however, had no such reservations. "If Aile had a little more guts we'd know exactly what they're doing right now. However, if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that they're both getting dressed."

Through some miracle of self-control Aile managed to keep a straight face, though just barely. Zero raised a mildly-surprised eyebrow. Fleuve could tell from their expressions that Model L had said something, but when he asked Aile to fill him in she shook her head and refused.

"Hmph. Fine, it doesn't matter. There's nothing I can do about the girl, but you can be sure I'll be giving Vent a piece of my mind about procedure and responsibility after the briefing."

"His mind is already filled with a piece of something else, I can assure you," Model L quipped again. Aile rushed off to find herself a seat before she fell over laughing.

"What's with those two?" Fleuve wondered aloud, shaking his head.

"It's a girl thing," Zero said with a dismissive wave. "Those two will be along eventually. Why don't we go ahead and get started?"

Fleuve nodded, then activated the microphone on the podium. The remaining soldiers who hadn't yet sat down quickly did so at the sound of the speaker turning on. "Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I've seen some of your faces, and some of them I've never seen at all. I wish we had time to become acquainted under better circumstances, but I'm afraid time is a luxury we do not have.

"As I'm sure all of you are currently aware, Legion has been taken by mavericks, led by Master Thomas of the Sage Trinity. While we are unsure of his exact objectives, his actions have clearly indicated that they are not in anyone's best interests except his own. With the fall of Legion and its security forces, the Guardians are the only organization with enough power to stop him. To this end, we have called this meeting in order to discuss our battle strategy in preparation for our attack, which will take place at six hudnred hours tomorrow morning."

Fleuve paused for a moment as a murmur went through the crowd. The soldiers seemed to be surprised that they would be mobilizing so quickly. The Guardians were normally a guerilla group that moved quietly and methodically - large-scale mobilizations on short notice were practically unheard of. Fleuve let everyone talk amongst themselves and shout a few questions for a while, but then one in particular caught his attention.

"That doesn't sound like the kind of thing Prairie would do. Where is she, anyway?"

Fleuve cleared his throat into the microphone, calling everyone's attention back to him. "You're right, this isn't the kind of plan Prairie would normally devise. That's because...Prairie is no longer Commander of the Guardians."

Silence filled the room. Way in the back, someone sneezed. It sounded like a gong.

"Whaddya mean, Prairie ain't Commander no more?" Someone finally shouted.

Fleuve shuffled his feet nervously. "I mean...that is...Prairie is..."

"I'll take it from here, Fleuve."

All the heads in the room turned as one to look at Zero, Fleuve's included. After a moment he collected himself and said, "Very well." He stepped down from the podium and motioned toward the microphone, but Zero ignored him. Instead he simply walked forward and spoke in a voice that wasn't much louder than normal speaking volume, but it carried through the room like he was shouting.

"Prairie will not be participating in this operation. She has appointed me temporary Commander of the Guardians. In turn, I've promoted Fleuve to Commander as well. Any order that comes from us is the same as if Prairie had said it herself."

"Why would Prairie promote you?" Someone shouted.

"I know it may not seem to make sense, but-"

"We don't even know who you are!"

"That's irrelevant, I'm-"

"What happened to Prairie? Why isn't she leading us?"

The questions came faster than Zero could answer them. Every time he got more than a few words into a response, someone else grabbed his attention. More and more voices began speaking up, until he simply couldn't keep up with them all. Fleuve was about to call for order in the room when a new voice spoke up from the corner.

"For heaven's sake, just tell them she's dead already."

Everyone in the room jerked their heads towards the voice and found themselves looked at a startled - and very embarrassed - Aile. She was holding her hand over her mouth while her face turned bright red, like she hadn't meant to say anything. Oddly enough, it hadn't sounded like her voice either, Fleuve thought to himself. Something odd was going on there, but he didn't have time to figure out what it was just then.

Zero drew himself up to full height and stared firmly out at the expectant crowd. "In the past twenty-four hours, Ashe, Vent, Prairie, and myself participated in a top-secret mission in an attempt to gain an advantage over Thomas. When push came to shove, Prairie...sacrificed herself so that we would succeed." Another murmur went through the crowd at that, but Zero continued speaking over it. "It is largely due to her actions that I'm standing here right now. Prairie was the kind of commander who refused to sit back and watch events unfold around her. She would never ask any of you to do something she wasn't prepared to do herself, including giving up her life for the cause of something she believed in.

"Prairie trusted that you, the Guardians, were stronger than just one person. Losing someone as...special as her is painful, but she had faith that you would carry on, regardless, to do what we need to do. Don't use Prairie's death as an excuse to be afraid of what might happen tomorrow - she didn't. Everyone here knew what it meant when they put on that uniform, that they'd be putting their life on the line to protect people who can't protect themselves. Let that knowledge give you the determination to do what you have to and see things through to the end, for better or for worse.

"Don't let her sacrifice be for nothing - prove that the Guardians are strong, stronger than anything Thomas can throw at them, and that Prairie was right to have faith in you and believe that, even without her here, you'll still get the job done."

The room was silent as each of the squad leaders thought about Zero's words. He took the opportunity to signal Fleuve back over to the podium. "I've got something I need to do. You can handle the rest of this by yourself?" he asked quietly.

Fleuve wanted to ask for details, but decided it was probably none of his business, so he simply nodded. "I think so. However, I would like to have your input before we finish."

"Thanks. I won't be gone long." Without another word, Zero turned and strode out of the room through a small door off to the side.

Fleuve returned to his place at the podium. "Well, everyone, there you have it. I understand that this information may come as quite a shock, but I would ask that you please refrain from making comments during the meeting. We have a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to do it in." He was about turn on the display screen that covered the front wall when the back door slid open, followed by Vent stepping into the room with Ashe close on his heels.

"How nice of you two to finally join us," Fleuve remarked loudly.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Vent said sheepishly.

"Hey, don't be mean!" Ashe yelled back. "We would've been here on time but we ran into some people who were kinda put off that you didn't invite them, so we brought them along too."

Ashe stepped out of the doorway and a single-file line of people Fleuve recognized as Hunters started filing into the room. They all waved and smiled at the rest of the Guardians, then found themselves places to sit. Several remarked at how comfortable the chairs were.

"Ah...I'm sorry," Fleuve stammered. "But this _is_ a Guardian operation. We shouldn't get civilians involved."

"Civilian, Guardian, who cares?" One of the bigger Hunters replied. "Not those buggers in Legion, I'll tell you that much. We're all just guys with guns to them - may as well start pointin'em all in the same direction."

"We want our camp back!" Another voice yelled, followed by a chorus of agreement from the rest of the Hunters.

"Besides, we know Legion better than any of the Guardians do," Ashe said.

"The Guardians have access to all of the latest data charts on the Legion terrain," Fleuve replied very matter-of-factly.

"Maybe you do...but the Hunters know all the stuff that isn't on the charts. We live there, remember?" Ashe went and sat down casually in an aisle seat, letting one leg hang over the arm. "Come on, Fleuve. We're willing to help, so let us in on the fun."

Fleuve looked disgruntled, but inside he was more than happy to see the Hunters joining in - they needed all the help they could get. Still, he had appearances to keep, especially in front of all the squad leaders. "All right then. As long as you understand the dangers and are willing to accept the risk."

"The only thing I'm worried about is Ashe beating everybody up before the rest of us get a chance!" Someone yelled, earning himself a wave of chuckles.

"Damn right I will!" Ashe retorted with a smile. "So you guys better bust your asses out there or I'll take all the glory!" She turned back to the front. "So Fleuve, show us this plan you've got so we can tell you all the stuff that's wrong with it."

Fleuve grumbled - genuinely, this time - and flipped on the projector, displaying a series of diagrams and charts on the main screen. "All right then. Zero and I came up with this draft based on the available data, but it's hardly exhaustive. I will begin by explaining the basic strategy, after which I'll open the floor to comments and suggestions."

* * *

After leaving the room, Zero went and wandered the halls aimlessly. Immediately after returning to Cygnus Base he'd started devising the attack plan that Fleuve and the others were now reviewing, which hadn't exactly been an easy task. The layout of Legion city was far from simple, and he had to take into account the fact that Thomas had a much bigger army than the Guardians. Luckily, street-to-street combat would favor the side with smaller numbers, but the trick was actually getting into those streets without the Guardian forces being wiped out in the field. Then there was the small problem of the maverick virus turning their own forces against them even as they fought - hopefully Fleuve had come up with a workable solution to that problem while Zero had been dealing with Omega.

Add to that the entire situation with Prairie, plus the fact that he was under constant scrutiny from everyone trying to decide if he really could do all the things he said he could, and the end result was that he was mentally exhausted beyond even his ability to handle. He'd been so wrapped up in everything that was going on that he hadn't even noticed until the issue of Prairie had come up during the meeting and his mind had completely locked up, like someone had slammed on the brakes in his head. He'd managed to talk himself out of it, but he realized he needed some time to himself to get his thoughts in order before he really screwed something up. A lot of lives were going to be depending on him tomorrow, and he needed to be in top form if he was going to pull his plan off, God of Destruction or not.

With all of the extra soldiers currently in the base in preparation for tomorrow's operation, most of the hallways were full to bursting - Cygnus base hadn't been built with the intention of housing the entire Guardian Corps at once. Everywhere Zero went he found another throng of Guardians or Hunters standing around, and each one glanced at him oddly, usually out of the corner of their eye. Whenever he made any indication he noticed they quickly averted their eyes and pretended like nothing had happened. Seeing someone you didn't recognize in a base this crowded wasn't out of the ordinary, but he knew that he didn't look anything like the rest of the Guardians. Even when he was trying to look relaxed he imagined he looked like he was ready to kill something. _One of the side effects of being the God of Destruction_, he thought to himself with a sigh.

Eventually he found himself standing on the landing platform where the Guardian Base was finishing its repairs. He'd glanced at the repair plans just long enough to see that all the broken parts were being replaced and the power system was being upgraded so that the _Sword of Hope_ could be fired without melting all the circuits. Prairie may have never intended to use the thing, but she'd never expected Legion to turn into a hive of mavericks either. Zero planned to use every weapon available to him to win this thing, no matter how devastating it was.

_If I have to raze the entire city to the ground to stop this, then that's what I'll do._ After all, it's not like Omega had never done it before - his body was most certainly capable of doing it, which is what had made the moral-less Omega so dangerous. Besides, anything Zero did would undoubtedly be better than what Thomas was planning...whatever that was.

There was a steady stream of mechanics and laborers going in and out of the ship, so Zero decided to avoid using the main entryway. Instead he walked around to the front of the ship, then jumped up and started climbing the wall. He reached the top and hopped the railing onto the upper deck before any of the mechanics milling about the landing pad even noticed he was there. The damage to the deck from the fight with Aeolus had already been repaired so the mechanic teams had already moved on to more important things, leaving the area completely empty - precisely what Zero had been hoping for. He spun around and leaned his arms on the railing, staring off into the distance at nothing in particular.

_I'm about to lead the entire Guardian Corps into battle against odds that are overwhelmingly against them. I wonder...what would Prairie have done?_ Something not quite so rash, no doubt. Thinking back to the last time he'd seen Alouette, Zero never would have predicted that the odd little girl would grow up to be the commanding officer of an army of several thousand soldiers, and a damned good one at that. Zero could see her strategies were a mix of both bold maneuvers and intricate planning, like a combination of both Zero's and Ciel's approach to combat. In fact, even the way she handled her troops was a combination of Ciel's soft-spoken manner and Zero's drill-sergeant personality. He'd already seen Prairie bark orders like the best army officers he'd ever seen, but she also had a way with people such that you couldn't help but like her. Her soldiers didn't do what they were told just because she told them, but because they wanted to do it. It was that kind of respect that Zero had never gained from the Resistance, or even the Maverick Hunters before that.

But what really bothered him about Prairie's death was the same thing Prairie herself had been worried about: that everyone would forget about her. Since she was off of Legion's records, it was highly unlikely that anyone would be lamenting Prairie's death for very long. Sure, the current Guardians would mourn her, but eventually they would be replaced by a newer generation, one who had never met her, and she would slowly fade away into insignificance.

_Meanwhile, the legend of the great Maverick Hunter Zero and the God of Destruction continues to live on, when all I ever did was kill things. Why is it that the real heroes, the people like Prairie, always end up forgotten?_

It was enough to make him pound the railing in frustration. The only real consolation he had was that he knew what happened to reploids after they died. He hoped that X had taken Prairie to Eden the same way he'd done for Zero centuries ago. If anyone deserved to be in that place, it was her. Maybe she'd meet Iris while she was there - they would probably get along well, considering how much they had in common.

_Including being killed by me._

Zero tried to squash that thought as soon as it appeared, but it got out all the same. He knew Prairie's death really wasn't his fault, but in the end there was no denying the fact that he was the one who'd killed her. He didn't want to spend his time thinking about Prairie like that, though. She'd died the way she wanted - helping him - and he wasn't going to shame her memory any further by needlessly pining away over it. Instead, he decided to simply do the last thing she'd ever asked of him - remember her.

So for the next several hours, as the sun slowly dipped down to the horizon, Zero simply stared out into the distance, remembering all the times he'd spent with both Prairie, Commander of the Guardians, and a little girl named Alouette.

* * *

Zero was pulled away from his reminiscing by the sound of the elevator door sliding open. He could tell from the footfalls who it was without looking. "Didn't think you'd be the one Fleuve would send to find me. Especially since you were late."

"Only because I brought the Hunters to the meeting with me," Ashe replied snarkily. "Besides, he didn't send just me, Vent and Aile are out looking for you too. I just happened to find you first."

"It's not like I'm hiding," Zero said with a rueful smile, "I just needed some time and space to think about...things."

"Uh huh. Then why is your communicator turned off?" She reached the railing and joined him in staring at the quiet sunset. "Meh, whatever. I know how you feel. I think everyone could use a break right about now, but time is something we don't really have a whole lot of." She turned to look at him. "Of course, you already know that."

Zero nodded. "Losing Prairie was a big deal to everyone, I know. But...none of them were there when it happened, in the same room. None of them were responsible for protecting her life." His eyes squeezed shut as a mental picture of the moment flashed across his vision. _None of them opened their eyes to find their fist in her stomach._

"Oh come on, don't gimme that crap," Ashe admonished him. "Prairie knew what she was doing. She knew going after Omega was going to be dangerous and she might not make it out alive, but she did it anyway. She was a big girl who could take care of herself and take responsibility for her own actions. Nobody is blaming you but you. Sometimes things just...don't go the way we'd like them to, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"You think I don't know that?" Zero said quietly. "I've been fighting this stupid war for longer than most people even know it's existed, had more friends and comrades die in front of me than I could possibly count - sometimes I was even the one who killed them. Death is something you have to deal with a lot of during a war." He paused for a moment, then sighed heavily. "But that doesn't mean you ever get used to it."

Ashe crossed her arms and studied him for a moment. "I guess not. Well, as long as you see what I'm saying and don't get too down about it. Right now we need a leader, and everyone's looking at you to fill the shoes. It wouldn't be very good for everyone's morale to see the hero getting all mopey and depressed."

"I never said I was a hero," Zero practically spat.

"Maybe not, but you're the closest thing we've got, so try and look the part, okay? We're all counting on you to get us through this. After all, that's what you came back for, isn't it?" She turned and headed back to the elevator.

Zero was silent for a moment as he thought about that. _What _am_ I here for?_ The answer didn't seem readily apparent, but he didn't want to worry Ashe. "I guess," he reluctantly agreed, then ruefully shook his head. "But he was always better at playing the hero."

"Hmm?" Ashe turned back around, her curiosity piqued. "Who's that?"

Zero glanced at her sideways from across the deck before answering. "I had this friend back during the Maverick Wars. That already made him special, because I wasn't really the kind of reploid who made friends, after a...certain incident. But this guy...he was friends with everyone. He cared about the world, and everyone in it. But that was his one major problem: his heart was too big. After every Hunter mission he'd go and check the casualty list and get this...sadness in his eyes. Just looking at him I knew it was only a matter of time before he snapped. And a couple of times he did...but he kept doing it anyway.

"He'd get that same look in his eyes every time he retired a maverick too. It took me a little while to figure out why, but eventually I got it: he pitied them. It wasn't their fault they'd been infected by the maverick virus. If only things had gone slightly differently, they could have lived out their lives peacefully instead of becoming monsters. What I never really understood was how - how did he manage to care so much about the people he fought and still keep on fighting? It must have destroyed him inside every time he completed a mission, but he kept returning to the battlefield beside me time and time again.

"So one time I asked him - 'why do you care so much about these mavericks?' They weren't people anymore - the virus turned them into vicious, mindless monsters, leaving no trace of their former selves for me to feel sad for. I just couldn't understand why he felt these abominations, our enemies, deserved to be pitied.

"'Because the day I stop caring is the day I stop fighting.' Those words have stuck with me ever since. The day you no longer care about death, even your enemy's, is the day you become the thing you hate. Someone who doesn't care about death is no different than a maverick."

Zero let his head sink down past his arms as he leaned his weight against the railing. "I know it wasn't my fault, and I know what I need to do. But please, could you just...give me a few more minutes?"

After a brief pause, Ashe nodded solemnly. "I won't tell anyone you're up here, but...don't be too long. We need you, Zero." Then she turned back around and entered the elevator, leaving Zero alone with his thoughts once again. However, before she could press the down button her curiosity finally got the better of her. "What happened to your friend?" she asked.

"He stopped fighting."

* * *

Zero returned to the briefing room just as Fleuve was wrapping things up.

"Ah, Zero there you are," Fleuve said, keeping his tone carefully neutral - no doubt there were more than a few choice words he'd like to say, but it wouldn't be good for morale to hear the two Commanders berating each other in front of the troops. "We've just finished discussing some modifications to your plans, and I was about to start assigning squads. Perhaps you'd like to look over the new changes?" He gestured towards the display on the wall. Zero glanced briefly in that direction, then shook his head. "No, I trust you all know what you're doing. I see we've even got some Hunters in the crowd now, which is great - I'm sure their knowledge of Legion helped solidify some of the facts I guessed at."

The truth was, he'd be relying on the Hunters joining the fight all along. If they hadn't come to the meeting voluntarily he'd have gone to pick their brains later. After all, recapturing the Hunter Camp was a pivotal part of his strategy, and who better to provide intelligence on it than the people who lived there? Besides, they needed all the soldiers they could get, and he guessed they knew how to handle themselves in battle. He was under the impression that what they lacked in organization they made up for with sheer guts.

"Well...all right then. Given the new changes to the battleplan, here are the assignments for each squad."

Each squad was assigned to one of four groups, each of which was lead by Aile, Vent, Ashe, or himself. Each of them had their own objectives, and not all of them required a large number of soldiers. Most of them were placed under Zero's group, as he was basically going straight up the middle. He was also pretty confident that he could handle more enemies than the rest of the Chosen Ones combined, but saying as much out loud would just sound like he was bragging. And, well...maybe he was.

Zero listened without comment as Fleuve organized everyone - that's what he was good at, after all. He made improvised groups for the Hunters and placed them under Ashe, just so they would 'know where to point their guns', as Fleuve put it. Whether they listened to anything she told them to do was a completely different matter. Zero didn't really care what they did, as long as they killed some mavericks while they were at it.

After each group had their assignment, Zero stepped up to the podium again. "All right, everyone. We know what we have to do, and now we know how we're going to do it. So let's go out there and show them what we're made of."

The mixed group of Hunters and Guardians gave a cheer, then began filing out of the room to go tell the plan to the rest of their squads, leaving only Zero and the three Chosen in the room with Fleuve. Aile tried to slip out as well, but Zero called her out first.

"Could I borrow Model L for a while?" he asked, then turned to Vent and Fleuve. "And Model X and P too. I'd like to ask them a few things."

"Um, yeah, sure," Aile replied, tossing her biometal to him. She looked like she would do anything to get out of the room. It probably had something to do with her unexpected outburst earlier - one of the things he was going to ask Model L about. "Just drop her off in my room when you're done," she said with a wave, then she was out the door.

"Geez, what's with her?" Ashe said. "Looked like she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar...hey! Don't you need Model A too?" She reached inside her pocket to pull him out, then her eyes went wide. "Oh crap! I forgot him in my room!" She turned and bolted out the door, nearly knocking over a couple of Guardians in the process.

"I'd better go make sure she doesn't get lost again," Vent said with a sigh, tossing Model X over to Zero. "I'll come get him from you later on."

"All right. By the way, since you're the only one who can merge with Model P, you'll be taking him along as well." Vent nodded his understanding, then went after Ashe.

"Model P is in my lab uploading a report summarizing his findings," Fleuve said. "I'm off to the command center to prepare for tomorrow so you'll have to pick him up yourself."

"Sounds good. I'll join you after I'm finished."

Fleuve nodded, then he left as well, leaving Zero alone in the briefing room with the two biometals.

"So, what did you want to talk about that you don't want Aile and the others to know?" Model L asked.

"Don't say it like that," Zero replied. "I'm not trying to hide anything, it's just...something they don't need to know. Besides, if I asked you to keep this a secret, what would you do?"

"The same thing I always do: whatever I want."

"Exactly." He began making his way to Fleuve's lab as he talked. "First off - Model L, how did you make Aile yell like that at the start of the meeting?"

"Ha! You noticed that was me, hmm?"

"I'm probably the only one who could recognize your old voice. I take it your Biomerge is coming along nicely?"

"Yes, though that was actually an accident. It would seem that when Aile and I are thinking the same thing it becomes easier for me to control her body if she isn't paying attention. I spoke out loud on purpose, but usually only Chosen can hear me so I didn't think it would be an issue. Apparently Aile also wanted you to hurry up and get to the point. The entire incident was my fault - I'll just have to be more careful with what I say in the future." She floated out of his hand and looked him in the eyes as they continued down the halls. "And how about your Biomerge? At least, I assume that's how you got into Omega's body. By the way, don't you think that's more than just a little bit creepy?"

"Well, I got the idea from you. It's a bit different though. Since I was essentially making a Biomerge with myself, the biolink formed instantly. But after I was in here, rather than switch places like you and Aile do, I...deleted him. So now it's just me."

"So have you moved completely into Omega's body, or are you still in Model Z?" Model X asked.

"I'm...not sure. I think I'm in both. It doesn't really matter, Model Z's M.E.G.A. system is so deeply connected to this body now that I couldn't break the biolink even if I wanted to. I've finally got my original body back, and I'm not letting anyone take it away from me."

They reached Fleuve's lab and found Model P sitting on top of the console. "Ah, hello," he said. "I trust the briefing went well. Is everything in order for tomorrow, then?"

"Almost. There's something I'd like to ask you three." The door slid shut behind Zero as he entered the room.

"And he wouldn't say a word until we arrived," Model L scoffed.

"I just don't like repeating myself, that's all," Zero replied. "Anyway, now that I've got you all in one place...why do you think I'm here?"

"What do you mean?" Model X said. "Isn't that obvious? You're here to help us stop Thomas from unleashing the maverick virus on the world."

"Yeah, but...that doesn't seem like enough. X went to a lot of trouble to break the laws of nature and bring me back from the dead, and if it was just so that I could beat up some megalomaniac with a scheme for world domination, why didn't he bring me back for that thing with Serpent in Innerpeace, or to deal with Albert in Legion? Why bring me back for this, but not those?"

"You've also stopped Omega, who we didn't even know existed," Model L pointed out. "If anyone else in the world knew about him, it would be X."

"Yeah, but if that was the reason, why am I still here? I haven't even heard from X since he pushed me into Model Z back in that mine. Besides, if he was bringing me back to beat up Omega, don't you think he could have told me that rather than make me wait until Prairie thought of it?"

"What are you saying then, Zero?" Model P asked. "Are you inferring there is more going on here than we are being led to believe?"

Zero nodded. "Yeah. I've got a feeling there's something bigger going on here, but I have no idea what it is, and that worries me. The fact that I haven't heard from X at all isn't making me feel any better, either."

"You've had three different bodies in as many days," Model L pointed out, "maybe he can't talk to you anymore. None of us really know what sorts of limitations there are on being a Cyber-Elf, and X tends to break the rules whenever he feels like it anyway, which just makes it even harder to know what he can or can't do."

"No, he'd definitely be able to talk to me," Zero said, shaking his head. "Despite all the form changes I've gone through in the past few days, I'm still a Cyber-Elf. Combined with the odd relationship this body has with Cyberspace it should be easy for X to find me and talk to me."

"Well then maybe he's just busy. Even when he's dead I'm sure he has important things to be doing. X always was a workaholic."

"Model L has a point," Model P agreed. "If there really is some larger issue at hand, it may be that X is currently dealing with problems we have no knowledge of and is temporarily incapable of contacting you. Since X has always had our best interests in mind, I am sure that we will hear from him, should he deem it necessary."

"Maybe you're right," Zero admitted grudgingly, though he didn't really believe it. "But still, did any of you notice anything...I don't know, out of place, while you were with Thomas?"

"Honestly, I didn't really see him much," Model L replied. "And when I did my mind was preoccupied with...other things. I don't think there was anything overly strange about him though. In fact, he did a very good job of pretending to be a good guy right up until Ashe gave Albert the beatdown."

"I agree with Model L," Model P said. "Even I did not suspect Thomas's ruse until he approached us after we retreated from the Ouroborus. He changed after that, adding a lethal cunning to his already formidable intellect. He was still the same person, but somehow...more."

"Wait...maybe that's it," Model X said. The other three all turned to look at him inquisitively. "You two weren't wouldn't know, but Model Z was there with me when Vent and Aile found the report Prairie's research team left behind at the frozen lake in Innerpeace. It mentioned that after prolonged exposure to the Model W fragment they'd found, the researchers began hearing voices in their heads. Vent and Aile also said that Serpent spoke of hearing the voice of Model W when they fought him in the Slither building. Could it be possible that Thomas has a Model W fragment and it's been 'talking' to him?"

"That's impossible," Model L said, "all the Model W's joined together to form Ouroboros and then sank into the ocean. How could he still have one? And how would he keep it a secret from Albert, who made them all in the first place? He didn't seem like the kind of guy to lose track of his possessions."

"We can't be completely sure that every Model W fragment was merged into the Ouroboros. Maybe Thomas only has a small piece, even smaller than the one Serpent had, small enough to hide it from Albert."

"There is also the possibility that Model W itself is responsible," Model P said. "The fragment may have hidden itself from Albert, as a form of insurance, should Albert's plan fail."

"Which it did," Model X agreed. "It's definitely a possibility. We all know that the physical size of the biometal means nothing, it's the power stored inside that matters. Even a small piece could have enough to influence the way a person thinks. Maybe Thomas doesn't even realize it happened, and believes everything he's doing was always his idea, like Serpent and Albert did. As long as Model W gets what it wants I don't think it cares who takes the credit for it."

"It would seem there are a lot of things we don't know, and it makes me rather uncomfortable," Model L said. If she'd had a body she would have squirmed, but instead she just twirled around restlessly. "I think I see why you're asking these questions, Zero."

"Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like being in the dark." Zero crossed his arms in thought. "Okay then, let's assume you're right. Say Thomas does have a Model W fragment. That still doesn't answer my question: If Thomas is just a glorified version of Serpent, why am I here? If Vent, Aile, and Ashe managed to shut down both Serpent and Albert on their own, why do they need my help to take down Thomas?"

"That's still a very good question," Model X replied. "Though if my theory about Model W 'talking' to Thomas is true, that would mean that it is even more dangerous than we previously believed. It not only provides its wielder with great power, but it also warps their minds until it gets what it wants, all the while leading the wielder to believe it was their own idea."

"It would explain the seemingly coincidental similarities between the schemes of Albert, Serpent, and Thomas," Model P pointed out. "Maybe there's something different about Thomas that made X feel that Zero's presence was necessary."

"So many 'what ifs' and 'maybes'," Model L said. "Despite how little I like being left in the dark, I say there's no point in worrying about it. We don't even know for sure that Thomas does have a piece of Model W handy, so at this point it's all just meaningless hand-waving and guesswork. We'll just have to go with what we have and deal with the rest as it comes along."

"True. However, Zero asked for our ideas on why he's here, and that seems like a reasonable guess," Model X replied.

"Depends on your definition of 'reasonable'," Zero said. "But I guess I'm with Model L - there may be something bigger going on here, but since we have no way of knowing what it is, there's no point in worrying about it. I just wanted to see if you three had any other ideas, that's all. With this body and Model Z, I'm sure I can handle anything Thomas and Model W throw my way."

Model P and X nodded in silent agreement, but Model L laughed. "Ha! I'd never thought of that. That's actually kind of scary: not only are you Omega, but you're Biomerged with Model Z. I wonder, now that the God of Destruction has even more power than he did before, what happens next?" She turned to him expectantly.

Zero couldn't keep the smirk off his face. "He lives up to his title and starts kicking some ass. And after everything I've had to deal with in the past few days, it's about damn time."

* * *

**Author's Note**

Well hey, look at that, I'm not quite dead. I seem to be saying that a lot lately, don't I? I really did intend on getting this out a heck of a lot sooner, but it just didn't turn out that way. This also took WAY longer to write than it should have. I think I rewrote every single part of this at least a dozen times before I got something I was happy with. Even still some of it is pretty meh...this whole chapter is just a bunch of stuff I needed to get out of the way, and I couldn't find a good way to organize it all. There's actually like 4 more scenes I wanted to put here but I just don't have room for them. C'est la vie. The other bad news is that Trinity Universe comes out near the end of the month, and I just *know* it's going to suck up all my time because I love cute things. I'll have to start slacking off at work more to get more writing done...

This part was also delayed because I started in on another project at the same time. I couldn't seem to get any RtZ writing done while it was bouncing around in my head so I took some time off to write that instead. You can read about it in my profile. I probably won't start posting it for a while, but any Zero series fans might like it. Whenever I start posting it you can be sure I'll give myself a shameless plug down here in the Notes. :D

In case it wasn't obvious, "Den of Hunters" is the music that plays while you run around the Hunter Base in ZXA. Technically Cygnus Base is a Den of Guardians, but it's got a bunch of Hunters in it at the moment, so I figured it was close enough.

So, now that all that set-up and character-building is out of the way, it's time to blow **** up. Hopefully that won't take me as long to write as this did. I had to be really careful not to reveal too much during this part, but also get out everything I needed to. (I actually deleted an entire page or two because I decided I shouldn't tell you that yet. Oh, the pains of being one's own editor!) It's a very careful balance between keeping readers in the dark and saying too much and killing the suspense, and it took some time to get it where I wanted it. Blowing things up, on the other hand, is quite easy to do. :D Tune in next time for trash-talking and more explosions than a Michael Bay movie, because Zero's back in his body and feeling pretty pissed.

Thanks to everyone who's still putting alerts/favorites on this thing. I'm terrible for going so long without an update, and I really appreciate it. Especially to the one who sent me a PM to wake me up. :)

...On an unrelated note, the Rockman 10 Image Soundtrack...well, rocks. :D

Ciao!


	26. Part 23, continued: Author Goes Oops

**Author's Note**

While writing/planning out the rest of the story, I realized I forgot to include this rather important scene at the end of part 23. Rather than edit it in three months after the fact and confuse everyone, I figured I'd just upload it separately. So yeah, I suck. Anyway, read on and pretend this is still the bottom of the page of part 23.

* * *

Aeolus snorted and covered his mouth as the elevator door opened. He was never going to get used to that smell...not that he particularly wanted to become accustomed to the smell of rotting corpses. He picked his way gingerly down the hallway, avoiding the...messes that still littered the halls.

_I can't believe I'm taking orders from a man who can do something like this..._he thought bitterly. _If this is what his 'new world' will be like, I'm glad I'll be there to stop it. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to continue taking his orders...for now. Just a little bit longer, then _I'll_ be the one giving the orders, rather than that madman._

He stalked through the halls as he made his way out of Legion headquarters. Anyone who met his gaze would have jumped to get out of the way of the scowling Mega Man...if there had been anyone left to meet it. The entire building had emptied in preparation for tomorrow's assault. To his knowledge, the only ones left behind were Thomas, himself, and the corpses.

Which is why he was surprised when, upon reaching the main lobby on the ground floor, he saw a Megamerged Atlas standing near the windows, her arms crossed as she looked out into the city. She glanced at him briefly from the corner of her eye, then pretended he didn't exist, as always. Atlas was hard to read, but he didn't think she hated him; she treated everyone like that. However, she'd been in an especially bad mood since the energy mine fiasco, even though Thetis had received most of the blame for that.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder why she was still here in the city and not out with her army of maverick soldiers, fighting the Guardians. It didn't make sense - why was Thomas keeping his two trump cards out of the battle? It was almost like he wanted to lose, though even without the two Mega Men in action Aeolus was still confident of their chances. Judging by Siarnaq's last report, which Aeolus had managed to 'acquire' without Thomas's knowledge, they severely outnumbered the Guardian forces to the point that it would take a miracle for the Guardians to even survive the battle, let alone bring the fighting into the city. The chances of them ever reaching Legion headquarters were ridiculously small. So why had Thomas just ordered him to stay behind...? _There's something going on here that I'm not seeing, and I don't like it._

He went and joined Atlas at the window, looking out at the fallen city of Legion. He could see fires burning in the distance, and the last signs of the maverick army leaving the streets in their typical mechanically-organized fashion. It wasn't the most attractive of views, but he supposed it was better than most of the sights around the tower. Besides, apart from the aforementioned sights, the sunset was actually quite beautiful.

"I'm assuming Thomas gave you the same order he gave me," he said flatly.

"If that order was to stay here and guard the tower, then yes," Atlas replied.

"Do you have any idea why?"

She looked at him from the corner of her eye again before replying, "No."

"It doesn't make sense. Why would he want us here instead of out there, winning the battle?" He motioned out towards the city.

Atlas grunted. "Don't know, don't care. Long as he doesn't try to kill me, I'll keep doing what he says."

Aeolus shook his head in disgust. "I find such blind obedience to a madman sickening. We both know he doesn't have our best interests at heart. If you continue on like this you're going to end up dead, and you'll have no one to blame but yourself."

Atlas shot him a glare. "The weak follow the strong; that is the way of the world. Thomas is stronger than I, so for the time being, I follow him. Once I have become more powerful, I will challenge and defeat him, and then I will be the one giving the orders. But until that day..." She returned her gaze to the window. "I will do what is necessary to survive."

Aeolus grinned slightly. "Well then, it would appear that I have competition. I don't care for the idea of living under Thomas's heel either. However, I would ask that you refrain from challenging him until he has served his purpose. As much as I hate to admit it, there are things he can do that I cannot...at least, not as quickly. Once he has completed the Purification...well, there's no reason for me to keep him around, is there?"

Atlas snorted rudely. "All it took was one little girl with a biometal to send you crawling back here in pieces. What makes you think you have a chance against Thomas?"

Aeolus's face immediately turned beet red in a mix of embarrassment and rage. "She only won through a combination of luck and a miscalculation on my part. I underestimated her. I have made...certain assurances that next time the outcome will not be the same." He refused to say any more, not wanting to reveal his secret to a potential competitor.

Atlas smirked, satisfied that she had gotten a reaction from the otherwise stoic and unreadable Aeolus. "I thought I sensed something different about you. You've been spending a lot of time alone with your biometal lately. You also haven't slept since your return from the Guardian's fortress. Tell me, what sort of secrets have you discovered? Surely you can share them with me - we are allies, after all."

"Just because we share the same enemies doesn't make us allies," Aeolus replied gruffly. "After Thomas is gone, I don't intend on serving beneath anyone, including you."

After a moment, Atlas shrugged. "Whatever. I'd rather win the Game of Destiny using my own power and skill than a trick borrowed from you, anyway."

Aeolus sneered at her confidence. "If I recall correctly, your last encounter with those Mega Men didn't end so well, either." In fact, Atlas had only recently returned to active duty after spending the past two days in the infirmary. Her recovery could have gone faster, but since there weren't any medical staff left alive, she had mostly taken care of herself. Aeolus had actually been slightly impressed at her ability to take care of herself, but he could hardly let her know that.

"That's not the same, I was fighting two of them at once. I would have had them if this 'Zero' hadn't shown up, and I _still_ almost got him too. I guess next time I'll make sure to plan for ancient heroes being resurrected from the dead in the middle of my assault."

_She does have a point there,_ he grudgingly admitted to himself. But it was irrelevant - the next time he and Aile met his victory was assured. Model H didn't seem to share his certainty, but lately his biometal had been more pessimistic than usual, which he found slightly troubling, but didn't dwell on it too much. As long as Model H continued to give Aeolus his power, the wind Mega Man would continue with his plans - his victories would speak louder than words ever could. Model H would come around in time.

An approaching group of mavericks caught his eye, because they were, in fact, approaching. There were six of them, and they were escorting a group of a dozen or so humanoids, who all looked utterly terrified. That was to be expected - they were probably the only non-infected humanoids left in the entire city, and the things they had lived through in the past few days were likely enough to turn any sane mind into a psychological nightmare.

"I didn't think there were any non-infected people left in the city," Aeolus wondered aloud, pointing at the approaching group. "Why haven't they been infected?"

Atlas shrugged. "Not sure. Thomas mentioned something about cyber-elves, but I don't know enough about those things to know what's going on. I heard him say Thetis's name, so maybe he's in charge of whatever it is they're doing."

"That would explain why we haven't seen him lately," Aeolus remarked, then shook his head. "But it doesn't make sense. What could Thomas possibly need cyber-elves for? He doesn't have a Model W to feed, and his virus is doing all the work for him. Yet another mystery that I don't understand."

"You worry too much," Atlas replied. "Thomas needs us. He won't do anything to us as long as we stay out of his way and do what we're told. Don't make more trouble than you're worth and you'll be fine."

"Hmph. I have to disagree. Allow him to lead you blindly by the nose and you'll fail to see the trap he's laid for you."

"Whatever. Just don't expect any help from me if you get yourself into trouble."

"I didn't ask for any." _Nor would I take it if you did._

With nothing left to say, the conversation died there. Atlas remained motionless, staring out the window until long after the sun had set, preparing herself for tomorrow's battle. Aeolus eventually became restless and went elsewhere to try and clear his mind with mental exercises, but he couldn't stop himself from thinking the same thing over and over again: _what part of Thomas's plan am I not seeing?_ As much as it worried him, he eventually decided it didn't matter. _Tomorrow will be my day of victory, when I show everyone the true power of a Mega Man. And it will all begin when I eliminate Model L and her annoying brat of a Chosen._ It was that thought that gave him enough comfort to drift off into a light sleep for the final few hours before the battle began.

* * *

**Author's Note**

In other exciting news, reviewer ShadowFox777 drew a picture of Model AX from part 21. It's not exactly the way I pictured it, but it's way cooler than I pictured it, so it worked out. :) Either way it makes me incredibly excited to think I inspired someone to do...well, anything, really. I put a link to it in my profile and I encourage people to go have a look. I should have linked it a while ago but I haven't made an update since it was finished. Bad me!

Part 24 is coming along nicely, though I don't think I'll hit my 3-month deadline. I'm actually working on 3 different fics at the moment, but I'm trying my hardest to work on this one whenever I can. But sometimes these ideas just get into my head and I can't get anything else written until I get them out of there. Sorry! On the upside, a lot of things explode. Most of it is Zero's fault. But you probably saw that coming. ;)


	27. Part 24: Black Burn

Part 24: Black Burn

Down in hangar C, where the Guardians kept their small number of vehicles, Ashe was really starting to hate her fellow Hunters.

"I don't care if you like each other or not, get in the stupid jeep." She said angrily to the two men standing in front of her. "The Guardians were nice enough to lend us a few, so we're going to bloody well use them!"

"But everyone knows Pater always forgets to put the safety on his rifle! He'll blow me away before we even see a maverick!" The tall, skinny one on the left complained. "Besides, he smells like hamburgers."

"I do not, and dammit Rob, that only happened once! I told you, the gun had a misfire! Besides, it's not like anybody got hurt," the other man replied. He was extremely short and stocky, to the point that Ashe thought it looked like someone had stepped on his head and squished him down a few inches. Combined with his bright orange-yellow eyebrows and balding haircut, he was probably one of the ugliest people Ashe had ever seen.

"Nobody got hurt? You put a hole through my roof!"

"Who cares, it was already leaking anyway!"

"That doesn't mean you can-"

"For the love of everything _shut the hell up!_" Ashe yelled again. She grabbed each of their shoulders with one hand, turned them around, and kicked them towards the jeep in question. "I'm your commander, not your babysitter! Now _get in the jeep!"_

Both men opened their mouths to protest, then yelped in surprise as a plasma round from Ashe's plasma pistol hit the ground between them. "Whoa, Ashe, what're you-"

"_GET IN THE GODDAMN JEEP!"_

Rob and Pater got into the jeep.

"Now _stay there_ until I tell you otherwise!" The two men looked ready to argue again, but decided against it after they found the pistol barrel pointing at their faces.

"Yes ma'am!" Both men replied, sitting squarely in the front seats of the jeep, afraid to move a muscle.

"Good!" She firmly thrust the pistol back into its holster with a glare.

"Sounds like you're having a wonderful time," a voice said from behind her.

"Oh yeah, I'm having the time of my-" Ashe stopped midsentence when she turned around and saw Vent standing there with his hands casually in his pockets. "Vent? Ugh!" She threw her hands up in frustration.

"That's...not exactly the reaction I was expecting."

"Sorry, I didn't mean..." She lowered her voice and stepped closer, so only Vent could hear her. "These guys are driving me crazy. I feel like I'm in some weird mixture of a sitcom and a soap opera, and it's really starting to get on my nerves. I'm starting to remember why I was always such a loner." She stopped for a moment to take a deep breath and calm herself down. "So, why are you still here? I thought your unit left already."

"Yeah, we're on our way out now. But I, uh...decided to stop by and...see how you were doing."

"Uh huh." Ashe crossed her arms. "You're terrible at this. What do you want, Vent?"

Vent sighed. "You're right, I am bad at this. Okay, look...Ashe I was hoping you'd...do me a favor."

"Depends." She poked him with a finger. "Are you going to do something stupid like ask me to stay at the base so I'm 'safe'? 'Cause I'll never respect you again if you do."

"Of course not! Even if I did, I already know you'd never listen to me. No, I was going to ask you to watch my ass out there. If I screw up my part of the plan you're the only person who's going to be close enough to bail me out."

"Oh. Don't worry about that. Isn't that what being part of a team is all about?" She grinned mischievously. "Besides, I'd watch your ass all day even if you didn't tell me to."

"That's not quite what I...nevermind." Vent returned the smile. "You're right. We're a team, and team members help each other out. Besides, hopefully it won't matter - if all goes according to plan I won't even see a maverick before I reach the Hunter camp."

"Right! You're being silly and you know it." She took a step closer to him. "So...why don't you do what you _really_ came down here to do?"

"I would, but..." Vent blushed and jerked his head in the direction of the Hunters, some of whom had stopped what they were doing to watch the close-proximity exchange. "You know...all these people..."

"They already _know_, Vent. Someone on this ship is _very_ good at spreading gossip." She took another step toward him. "Now hurry up, I'm an impatient girl." She tried to sound angry, but the smirk on her lips gave her away.

"Well then, I guess...uh..." He stepped forward and wrapped Ashe in an embrace. "Be careful, Ashe," he said quietly into her ear, then parted again with a peck on the cheek. As he stepped back, he could hear some of the Hunters in the room yelled good-natured jeers.

"Weeeeeeeeak!"

"Come on man, you can do better than that!"

"You're goin' off to battle, gotta make her remember ya!"

"I've had better kisses from ma dear old granny!"

Ashe turned and shot deadly glares into what had become a small crowd of Hunters. "Oh, buzz off and mind your own business, you freaks," she countered, but they continued their friendly taunting. Ashe tried telling them in not-so-kindly terms to leave them alone and get back to work, but they didn't seem to want to listen. Eventually she gave up with another resigned sigh. "Don't listen to them Vent, they're just a bunch of drama-loving idiots."

"No, I've think they've actually got a point." Ashe turned in surprise just in time for Vent to reach around her and tip her back. She fell backward with a yelp, landing in one of his arms as she suddenly found his face only inches away from hers.

"Vent, you-"

"Like I said earlier..." Vent's voice was so low that only Ashe could hear it. "Every moment could be our last, so I want to do this without any regrets, without leaving anything unsaid or done."

Ashe barely heard the cheers and hoots of the surrounding Hunters as Vent pressed his lips to hers; she was far too busy trying not to melt. As it turned out, Vent really _was_ a good kisser when he was ready for it, and she quickly rose to the challenge. _Someday I'll have to ask him how he got so good at this...when I'm not quite so busy enjoying it._

After a much longer period of time than was necessary - but still not quite as long as she'd have liked - Vent finally pulled back, the assembled hunters still cheering and clapping all around them. She opened her eyes to find him staring back at her.

"I love you," he said, just for her.

"I love you too," she replied with a smile.

After Ashe got back on her feet, Vent said, "Well, I need to get going or else my group will leave me behind. I'll see you later." Then he left the hangar at a jog, the crowd parting to him through. A couple hunters gave him a pat on the back as he went by, and one of them gave him a high-five.

"Never thought I'd see the day Ashe fell for a straight-up square like him!" Someone yelled.

"Hey, shut up!" Ashe tried to sound angry as she yelled back, but couldn't keep the smile off her face. "You're all just jealous I'm taken! Now shut up and get back to work before I tell the Guardians you're all just a bunch of voyeurs!"

* * *

Less than an hour later, Zero was standing on the bridge of the Guardian Base with Fleuve and Aile, taking one last look at their battle plan.

"Well, they're more or less laid out the way we thought they'd be," Fleuve said, referring to the maverick forces. "It looks like we predicted them perfectly. Everything is going according to plan."

"Now we just need our crazy plan to actually _work_," Aile remarked. "I have to admit, I'm still not completely sure you can handle all those mavericks by yourself and still be ready to take on Thomas afterward." She pointed to the advancing red line on the display that represented the mavericks. There were far too many of them to bother counting, and it was only a few more minutes before the Guardians engaged them.

"Don't worry about Thomas," Zero told her with a dismissive wave, "I'll handle him." _Stopping Thomas isn't that hard. Stopping him and his maverick army before they wipe out the Guardians and Hunters, on the other hand, might prove to be somewhat difficult. It would be so much easier if I could just kill them all and get it over with_...he quickly stopped that line of thought. _That's something Omega would say, not me._

"Relax Aile, I've seen Zero take apart more mavericks than that and come out without a scratch," Model L reassured her Chosen One with a chuckle. "I should know, I was the one commanding them at the time."

"So...you had more soldiers than this, and you still lost? That's not exactly reassuring, you know."

"Oh please, I would have won if Zero hadn't been there. Since he's on our side this time, there's no way I can lose!" She began cackling madly.

"This battle's not just about you, Model L," Zero said pointedly, but the biometal was off in her own world and didn't hear him, so he ignored her. He turned to Gardenia and said, "I'd like to make an announcement before we start. Can you put me through to everyone?"

The operator tapped a few buttons, waited a few seconds, then said, "All right, you're good to go."

"May I have your attention please," Zero said. His voice went into his helmet communicator, through the Guardian Base communication systems, and out to every soldier on the field. "I have an important announcement to make before we begin operations."

Aile raised a questioning eyebrow. "What's this about?" She whispered to Fleuve, who shrugged.

"I have no idea. He didn't mention anything to me."

Zero continued. "I'm not one for fancy words, and I'm sure you've all heard enough of me talking by now, so I'm going to make this quick.

"I realize that everything is happening very suddenly. A few days ago we fought on the Ouroboros to save the world from Albert, and now we're fighting against Thomas in Legion. It takes a lot of guts to do that, and I'm glad I have the opportunity to fight alongside all of you. I think Prairie knew exactly how lucky she was to have you all supporting her, which is why she was willing to do whatever it took to make sure you had a fighting chance. She believed that you had the ability to do this, and I do too.

"That's why, in Prairie's honor, we are renaming the Guardian Base. Effective immediately, the Guardian Base will now be called the _Faith_. For the past several years you've placed your faith in Prairie, and this ship represents the faith she's now placing in you.

"So...uh...let's go out there and make her proud." He motioned for Gardenia to cut the transmission.

"Well, that was kind of a lame ending," Aile remarked. "But can you really just change the name like that? Don't you have to...I don't know...register it, or something?"

"With who? Legion?" Zero replied. "At this point I really don't think they care. We just have to change the identification code we transmit. If anything it might help us confuse the enemy, making them think we've got another ship."

"Zero, you do realize this ship already _has_ a name, don't you?" Fleuve pointed out.

"Nobody ever used that name anyway," Zero replied. "I don't think Prairie would mind. Besides, with all the repairs she's had lately, it's practically a new ship."

Fleuve didn't look convinced, but apparently he didn't feel like arguing; he just shrugged indifferently. "We'll be engaging the enemy shortly. You should get ready to go."

"Right. I'll start here, by squad twenty-seven." Zero pointed to a spot that was slightly ahead of their forward-most forces, where the first fighting was most likely to break out. "Tell them not to engage until I get there." He turned and headed for the door.

"And how do you expect them to do that?" Aile asked. "There's nowhere to transfer you to, and the mavericks aren't just going to sit and wait while you walk out there. Speaking of which, how are you planning on getting off the ship?"

"I'll think of something," Zero said with a wave over his shoulder as the door closed behind him.

"Well, that's not very reassuring," Aile remarked. "The guy who planned out our battle strategy didn't even think of how he was going to get himself down there?"

"No, more like he doesn't see it as a problem," Model L replied. "He'll probably just ride over there on top of a missile or something."

Aile started laughing, but stopped when she saw Model L wasn't. "Wait, you're serious? You actually think he's going to ride a _missile_ into combat?" she said incredulously. Fleuve blinked in surprise.

"It wouldn't be the first time. Hopefully he remembers to get off before it explodes this time. I wasn't there but Model H told me it was quite the sight. Though, to be fair, last time he wasn't doing it on purpose."

Aile stared at her biometal for a moment, then crossed her arms. "I _know_ you're pulling my leg this time. Riding an armed missile into battle is just stupid. I'll believe it when I see it."

"Oh, don't worry. Whatever Zero does, I'm sure it will be at _least_ that crazy, and he'll look good doing it...though I'll admit, I might a little biased."

Aile rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

* * *

Zero was on his way down to the engine room to see what his options were for getting off the ship when he ran into Silure as the aged mechanic stepped off the elevator. He was holding a pair of small devices, one in each hand.

"Zero! Glad I caught you before you left."

"I was actually just coming down to find you. What did you need me for?"

"I've got a present here for you." He handed over the two small objects. "Prairie gave me some really old schematics of these things and asked me to make them before she left, then...well, I kinda forgot about them, what with all the...stuff going on. Sorry."

"Not a problem." Taking a good look at the two objects, Zero immediately recognized one of them as his old Shield Boomerang. The other one wasn't so familiar; Silure caught him looking at it funny and explained.

"The designs Prairie gave me were _really_ old. She wanted me to make a whole bunch of different things, and I figured, why not make it all the same weapon? So I updated it a little bit. You can use that one as a rod, a...uh...whip-thing, or a force cannon. The design called for something else entirely - a couple of rods, I believe it was - but I figured one of these would work just as well, and only take one hand to boot. I don't know where Prairie got those plans, but that's a pretty weird set of gear. I hope you know how to use it."

Zero smiled. "I think I'll figure it out."

"'Course you will, you're good at that stuff. Now, what did you need little ol' me for?"

"I need to get two hundred meters ahead of the ship in a hurry. What can you do for me?"

Silure scratched his stubble for a moment while he considered his options. "Well, we don't really have any rocket boards left. Hmmm...now that I think about it, we don't really have much of anything that flies. The hoverboards we use for mid-flight repairs wouldn't go fast enough, and the spare hoverbike we have on board would probably just go straight down if we dumped it. Other than that we've just got all the weapons we took on board at Cygnus Base; guns, bombs, some old-fashioned ballistic missiles..."

Zero raised an eyebrow. "Missiles?"

* * *

Captain Malcolm Reynolds, of Guardian Defense Squad twenty-seven, checked his hearing circuits. "I'm sorry, you want me to do _what_

?"

"Hold position where you are and wait for Zero to arrive and issue further orders. He should be along shortly," Fleuve repeated.

"But didn't I just hear him talking from the base? Those mavericks are almost on us, how is he going to-"

"Captain, your job is to follow orders, not question them. Zero will be arriving shortly with further instructions, but until then, hold your current position...and I suggest you take cover." Then the transmission ended.

"Take cover? The hell for? The mavericks are still way the hell over there!" The frustration in his voice was evident.

His second-in-command, a tall woman named Jean Ishikawa who he'd met only an hour ago, overheard him and walked over. "Sir, have you taken a look at how many mavericks are marching over that hill? Whether Zero is coming or not, taking cover and praying for a miracle might be our only option at this point."

"Yeah, but why'd they make us march all the way out here before telling us that? What do they expect us to hide behind, the shrubs?" Captain Reynolds waved an arm around, indicating the small, knee-height plants that littered the otherwise flat and featureless area. "We passed a perfectly good cliff a few minutes ago, why the hell did they make us march out here into a killing field if we're just gonna sit here and wait to die?"

"I'm not sure, Captain, but I've been with the Guardians long enough to know that they wouldn't send us out here without a reason," Jean replied, shouldering her rifle. "Prairie wasn't the type to waste lives, and I don't think anyone she promoted would be either."

"Hmph. Maybe so, but that still don't mean I have to like it." The Captain crossed his arms. "This whole plan stinks, if you ask me."

"Hey, what's that?" A member of the squad exclaimed, pointing upward. Jean and Reynolds looked where the soldier was pointing and watched as a single missile, no more than a meter and a half long, shot out from the newly-christened _Faith._

"A _missile?_ What do they think they're gonna do with that?" Reynolds fumed as the missile shot across the battlefield. It was headed for the closest enemy airship, but its course would take it dangerously low over the field of approaching mavericks. "Geez, don't they know how to aim those things? It's just gonna get shot down!"

"Maybe it's a special missile," Jean argued half-heartedly. "Maybe it's some secret weapon, and when it gets shot it-"

The maverick forces below the missile opened fire with their plasma weapons, filling the air with a sheet of plasma fire. The missile was hit almost immediately, exploding pointlessly in the air halfway to its destination.

"-makes a pretty boom and a lot of noise," Reynolds finished. "Yup, that's it. We're doomed."

"Hold on a second, Captain." Jean was looking up at the falling wreckage of the missile. "Something's going on up there."

"Huh?" The Captain looked back at the wreckage and spotted what Jean was looking at - part of the debris was glowing. It hung in the air for a few seconds, then started falling towards the assembled mavericks below. "What do you think that is?"

"Beats me. Some kind of secondary explosive?"

"Maybe. Doesn't really matter. Whatever it is, it's just gonna get blown out of the sky too."

As soon as Reynolds finished speaking the mavericks opened fire again, filling the air with another volley of plasma bullets. However, rather than explode into a million pieces like Reynolds expected, the bullets began bouncing off of the strange glowing object. Several of them went straight back down and hit the mavericks below, causing a decent amount of destruction and mayhem all on their own. The object began to glow brighter and brighter as it fell, completely unscathed by the maverick laser barrage.

"Captain, we might want to...uh..." Jean averted her eyes; now the glow was so bright it hurt to look directly at it.

"Take cover? I agree." Reynolds turned and yelled for the rest of his squad to do just that before leaping behind a nearby shrub himself.

Just as the glowing object touched the ground there was a flash of light so bright that even in broad daylight it cast shadows across the ground. It was followed a split second later by a tremendous cracking sound, like a mountain splitting in half. Reynolds held tightly to his rifle as he felt the earth rumble and shift beneath him, wondering what sort of terrible weapon the Guardians had just unleashed.

Once all the shaking finally subsided, Reynolds peeked over the top of his boulder. His jaw nearly hit the ground when he saw what had happened.

The entire landscape of the area had changed. The mavericks had been marching over a small hill, but that was gone now, along with all of said mavericks. Now it was just a large, flat area, with a few piles of rock around the edges forming a circle. Dust, rock, and maverick parts were still flying through the air from the impact, the last of which were just beginning to land - some of it not far from Reynold's position, over five hundred meters away. At the center of it all, where the glowing object had landed, was a massive plume of dust, preventing both the remaining mavericks and the Guardians from seeing each other, or what had caused the explosion...not that there were many mavericks left in the area.

The entire Guardian squad was speechless. They'd never seen such a powerful weapon unleashed in such close proximity, and despite being so close to the explosion, not even the most experienced of them knew what it was. _First the Sword of Hope, and now this,_ Reynolds thought to himself. _What other 'surprises' do Fleuve and Zero have up their sleeves?_

Before Reynolds could gather his wits enough to issue orders his communicator crackled to life.

"_Captain Reynolds of squad twenty-seven?_" It was Zero's voice.

"Uh, y-yessir! This is Reynolds!" The Captain stuttered.

"_I'll draw the enemy's fire and thin their ranks. You and your squad will follow two hundred meters behind me and clean up the rest. Don't let anything get past you. Understood?"_

"Yessir!" He was about to ask how he was supposed to follow him if he hadn't arrived yet when he saw a sword-shaped purple glow appear in the midst of the dust cloud. _You mean...that thing was..._

If his mind hadn't already been blown, it certainly would have been now.

"Captain?" Reynolds jumped a little at the sound of Jean's voice - he hadn't even noticed his second's approach.

"Yes, Jean, what is it?"

"How are we supposed to follow Zero if he hasn't arrived yet?"

"Oh, don't worry, he's here," Reynolds replied. Without further explanation he turned to face his squad as they all stared at the destruction. "All right, form ranks! Guns ready, we're moving out! Teams of two every ten meters, fifty meter sweep! Don't let anything through! Jean, you're with me."

While the troops readied themselves and hustled out to their positions, Jean leaned forward and spoke quietly. "A minute ago you thought this whole thing was stupid, and now you're charging in head-first?"

Reynolds jerked a thumb at the explosion. "When a guy who can do _that_ tells you to back him up, you do what you're told, whether you like it or not. Now come on; I don't want to miss all the fun because those pretty legs of yours couldn't keep up with me." With a grin he took off at a run towards the sound of plasma rifles and explosions that had started coming from the other side of the dust cloud, indicating Zero was already hard at work, while the rest of the squad fanned out to the sides.

"Hey! Stop staring at my legs, that's harassment!" Jean yelled indignantly as she readied her gun and chased after the Captain.

* * *

For the first time in over two hundred years, the God of Destruction was unleashed on the battlefield.

The next wave of maverick troops reached Zero's landing position and immediately opened fire; they hit nothing but air. Zero didn't even bother to dodge around them, instead running between them, slicing apart the shots that were in his way with his purple Z-Saber. Before they could fire a second volley he was upon them, cutting each of them apart in a single slice, not stopping for even a moment. By the time the two halves of his first victim hit the ground he'd already cut down half a dozen more. He fired a few Buster shots from his hand at some nearby stragglers, then dashed to the right and jumped into the next closest group of targets.

His goal wasn't to destroy every maverick, though he easily could have. Rather, he was just taking out enough of them that the Guardians could sweep through after him and take out the rest while the enemy concentrated their fire on him. The primitive intelligence of the mavericks told them to concentrate on taking down the largest threat, which Zero easy qualified for. Unfortunately for them, their AI didn't realize that in his current state of body and mind, Zero was nearly impossible to hit.

Mass destruction ensued as Zero began to live up to his infamous title. He took the opportunity to test out his new combination rod weapon, making extensive use of the Chain Rod and Recoil Rod to get around the battlefield, while the Triple Rod was mainly useful for piercing more heavily armored foes - its longer reach was useful in getting past their defenses without the hassle of hacking them to pieces first. He also found it useful as a bludgeoning weapon on more than one occasion, twirling it about like an old-fashioned quarterstaff and slicing apart mavericks with both ends simultaneously. But still, nothing felt as good in his hands as his Z-Saber, and the Buster integrated into his hand proved both incredibly effective and convenient.

_As fun as this is, it would be nice if there were at least _one_ maverick out here who could make me break a sweat,_ Zero thought to himself as he fired another blast from his hand, blowing apart what looked like some kind of cannon-on-wheels before it could fire at him. _Something that actually took effort to kill, that I could take a few minutes to enjoy crushing the life out of..._

_ Wait, what?_

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he sliced apart another pair of Galleons. _What's the matter with me? I'm not out here for fun, I have a job to do. Things like that aren't my style at all. That's more like..._

"_Zero, respond!_"

Hearing Fleuve's voice come out of his communicator snapped Zero's mind back to reality. "What is it, Fleuve?" He replied.

"_Finally! I've been trying to reach you for the past two minutes! Is something wrong?"_

"No, I'm just a little busy at the moment," Zero remarked as he noticed a group of Galleons on his right and mechaniloids on his left were working together to pin him in their crossfire. As they both opened fire he used his right hand to deflect the Galleons' shots back at them with his Shield Boomerang, while his he used his left to latch his Chain Rod onto a turret mechaniloid. With a single mighty pull he ripped the insides of the turret out, throwing them into another one nearby, knocking it out of the air as well. The two falling turrets collided with other nearby mechaniloids in a series of explosions, taking out the entire group as he turned and fired a pair of charged shots from his palm at the remaining Galleons, eliminating them as well.

The skirmish was over by the time Fleuve responded, only seconds later. "_I know you've got your hands full, but we have a situation here." _His voice sounded grave, and slightly panicked. "_A stealth unit appeared near squad five a few moments ago, and now they're pinned down and taking heavy casualties. We sent a reserve squad but they've run into stiff resistance and can't get any closer. I'm sure I don't need to tell you we can't afford to let those mavericks get behind us."_

"No, you don't." If the mavericks got past the Guardian lines at any point they'd be able to attack the rest of the Guardians from the rear and flanks. Once that happened the fighting would be over quite quickly, and not in their favor.

Unfortunately, Zero had gotten too far ahead of his Guardian backup and was being swarmed by the entire army of mavericks and mechaniloids. Getting past them and over to squad five would probably take more time than he had. He also planned to find the reserve unit and figure out what 'stiff' meant. "I'm a little pinned down here. Can you give me some support fire?"

Zero deflected more attacks with his Boomerang and cut apart a worm-like machine with his saber as it emerged from the ground before he got a response. It was Aile this time.

"_We'll try and clear out your path a little, but...Model L says, 'try not to let the ship land on you.'"_

"What ship?"

Zero felt a deep bass hum resonate through his chest, followed by a sudden, thunderous crack that ended in a high-pitched whine as the _Sword of Hope_ fired, blowing a hole through the middle of a Legion ship hovering in the sky above. A few moments later the ship blew apart in a massive explosion, raining debris down on the battlefield below. Zero and most of the Galleons were fast enough - and smart enough - to avoid being crushed, but many mechaniloids were not. The falling scrap metal quickly punched several holes in the maverick swarm, allowing Zero to make a hasty exit through the thinned ranks before they regrouped. He informed Captain Reynolds that he would be on his own for the moment - _"Does it matter? You already killed most of'em anyway."_ - then took off in the direction of squad five, wrecking plenty of mavericks and mechaniloids as he dodged falling ship debris along the way.

* * *

"A team, grenades! B team, cover fire! One, two, three, _go!"_

Two thirds of Guardian reserve squad three jumped out from behind their rock cover and launched their attacks at the monstrous snake mechaniloid that was blocking their path, while the other third continued to hold the rear line. Plasma rifles didn't seem to be affecting the snake unless they managed to hit a weak point in the armor plating, so they were using shock grenades to distract it long enough that they could hit those spots. Eventually they'd be able to take it down, just like the other three before it, but it was costing them both time and supplies, both of which were running in short supply. By the time they made it to squad five they might be in need of a reserve group themselves.

After the snake finally bit the dust, the squad captain did a quick headcount and was happy to see that he hadn't lost any troops yet. As he was yelling for the squad to move out, he felt a rumbling in the earth beneath his feet. The squad had just enough time to wonder what was going on before another huge mechaniloid burst through the ground, sending rock shrapnel and surprised Guardian soldiers flying in all directions. The captain didn't bother yelling for everyone to find cover - he knew his troop had enough common sense to do it on their own.

The captain retreated to the top of a nearby sandy hill and crouched down to get a good look at their latest foe. To his surprise it wasn't another snake, as he'd expected, but a massive scorpion, ten feet wide and five feet high, not counting the massive tail that arced over its back. It had two massive claws on either side of a large red orb where the 'face' would be, just like a Galleon. He watched it take a few moments to gather itself after its initial attack, then it began shooting lasers from the 'stinger' on the tip of its tail. The scattered Guardian troop took cover behind various piles of rock debris, but the monster simply smashed away their protection with a claw then chased them off with more laser fire. The troop was doing a good job of staying alive, but they were too disorganized to attempt a decent counterattack.

The captain tried to come up with a counter-strategy, but before he could get very far the scorpion manged to pin two of his men beneath a large slab of granite. Seeing that they didn't have much time before the mechaniloid crushed them into pancakes, he unslung his rifle and leapt out from his hiding place, firing as many rounds as he could as he slid down the side of the hill. The rounds impacted harmlessly on the hard armored shell of the mechaniloid, as he expected, but he figured it was worth a try - he had to distract that thing to give his men time to escape. As he reached the bottom of the hill he pulled out two shock grenades, pressed the activation triggers, and threw as hard as he could. The grenades hit their marks and exploded right beside the monster. The force of the double explosions flipped it over onto its back, though without actually causing any damage. The two soldiers trapped beneath the rock were probably deaf now, but at least they were alive - until that thing got back on its feet, anyway.

Unfortunately for the captain, the thunderclap of the grenades also covered up the rumbling sound behind him until it was too late. There was a massive roar behind him, and he spun around in time to see another scorpion burst out of the hill he'd just come down. It came straight at him, and the captain saw his life flash before his eyes as it reached out with its huge right claw to snap him in half.

As it turned out, the captain didn't die in the next few seconds, as he had fully expected. Instead, the moment was forever etched into his mind as in the blink of an eye a small green chain wrapped itself around the monstrous claw and then went taut, pulling the entire mechaniloid sideways. The scorpion twisted violently as it tumbled through the air, and the captain barely managed to duck as its tail swished through the air where his head had been a moment ago. Dumbfounded, he looked over to where the scorpion had come skidding to a halt and was now thrashing around violently as it tried to free itself.

Satisfied that he'd gotten the mechaniloid's attention, Zero retracted his Chain Rod before the monster tore it away from him. The scorpion fired a volley of lasers from its tail to keep Zero at bay while it got back on its feet, but Zero either dodged or lazily deflected them with his Boomerang, waiting for it to stop thrashing and give him an opening. When it finally had its six legs back under it, the scorpion laid down one last volley of poorly-aimed laser fire, then charged.

Of course, as a poor, unfortunate mechaniloid, it didn't possess enough intelligence to realize what a bad idea that was. Just before it reached him, Zero fired a charged shot from his hand that tore through the three legs on the beast's left side. Not when to quit, the beast tried to crush Zero with its right claw as it skidded through the dirt towards him, unable to hold itself up. As the claw was about to close Zero cut it in two with a flash of his saber, cleaving through the heavy alloys like paper. With its other claw pinned to the ground by its own body, the scorpion tried to club him into the ground with its tail. Zero jumped up to meet it as it came down from above, tearing through it with a saber uppercut, splitting it neatly down the middle from the tip to the midsection, then landing neatly on the scorpion's 'face'. He pointed his Recoil Rod at the thing's 'eye', adjusted his angle a bit, then fired, blowing a hole through the scorpion's 'brain' and sending half of its head into the hard rock below, leaving behind only a twitching pile of scrap as Zero soared through the air towards the other target.

The other scorpion had just managed to flip itself back over when Zero landed on top of it, Triple Rod extended. He drove it through the mechaniloid's heavy back plating, but apparently he failed to connect with any important parts; the monster ignored the damage and swiped at him with its tail. Zero jumped off to the side to avoid being bludgeoned, then sliced off part of a claw as the scorpion spun around and tried to smack him. It followed up by bringing its tail down in an overhead slam, just like the last one had. Zero stepped to the side just before it hit him and the tail slammed into the ground, kicking up a large cloud of dust and rock. He ignored it and brought his saber down hard on the tip, destroying the laser cannon in an explosion that didn't cause him any injury, but it did put black soot and char all over the front of his armor.

Blinded by the surrounding dust, Zero failed to see the scorpion fling its maimed tail like a club before it connected solidly with his chest, sending him flying several meters. He bounced once on his shoulder before landing on his feet like a cat, then fired his dash thrusters twice; the first to stop his momentum, and the second to send him charging back the way he'd come. The mechaniloid brought its maimed claw up to cover its 'face', while it swung the other one down to squash Zero like a bug, but the crimson reploid was too fast. He shot under the overhead attack like a bullet, then thrust his sword straight through the impromptu claw-shield, impaling the red eye behind it. Although the mechaniloid began to sputter and probably didn't have much time left to function, he sent a jolt of electricity through the saber that overloaded large portions of circuitry, just to be sure. He pulled his saber back out, then wound up and delivered an uppercut with his Recoil Rod. The nearly-dead scorpion flew through the air, flipping over several times before it landed with a sickening crunch several dozen meters away, its tail bent in at an angle that it likely hadn't been designed to.

Looking around, Zero saw the squad captain standing nearby, his mouth hanging open. "You guys are the reserve squad?" Zero asked casually.

"Uh...yeah, that's us," the captain replied dumbly.

"Good. Sorry it took so long to find you, I've been...busy. Now form up and-"

Another of the giant snake mechaniloids suddenly burst from the ground just behind Zero and lunged at him, jaws wide open. The captain didn't even have time to raise his rifle before Zero whirled around and fired a huge plasma shot from his hand straight into the snake's mouth. The blast ripped through half the length of the snake's body, melting its insides to scrap before bursting through the outer shell and back into open air. The lifeless body tumbled to the ground, coming to rest right at Zero's feet.

Zero turned back to the squad captain. "As I was saying, let's form up and move out. Squad five isn't going to last much longer. I'll clear a path for you so try to keep up." He took once quick glance around the battle area and saw the rest of the squad beginning to leave their cover, then dashed off over the next rise without another word.

It took a few moments before one of the squad members came up to the still-dazed captain. "Sir? Who was that?" It was another few moments before the captain could respond.

"Not who..._what_ was that?"

* * *

Donald willed his reploid legs to go faster as he ran down the valley floor, looking for some kind of cover. He tossed a grenade over his shoulder without looking, and when it blew up a few seconds later he could tell it had taken several of his pursuers with it - small, vicious mechaniloids no more than a foot tall, with pitch-black plating, blood red eye-sensors, and eight legs sticking out from a central body. It was like being chased by an entire army of black widow spiders, and there were still more coming than he cared to count. He could hear their mechanical legs skittering across the ground as they chased after him and Nyssa, the tall brunette reploid to his left who had found herself stuck in his company after their squad had been ambushed by a pseudoroid. She was firing her rifle backward over her shoulders without aiming - there were so many of the little mechanical terrors that it was practically impossible to miss them. Donald jumped over a rock with a spin and opened fire as he landed, also not aiming at anything in particular. The critters couldn't dodge worth a damn, and they broke apart in a single shot like cheap plastic, but they just kept coming.

Squad five had been holding its own against the cloaked Galleon troops that had suddenly appeared beside them, then destroyed three Digger-class underground transports full of mechaniloids after that, but after the pseudoroid had appeared with its swarm of spiders their defenses had crumbled like dust in the wind. He hadn't personally seen everyone in the squad die, but judging by the screams that had echoed down the line he doubted there was anyone left. And he didn't even want to think about what the pseudoroid had done to the bodies afterward...

"Looks like this is it," Nyssa yelled from where she'd stopped a few feet away, still firing mindlessly into the approaching swarm. She stopped just long enough to throw her last grenade as the spiders skittered into throwing range, taking out a significant chunk of them, but their advance didn't stop. "If you've got any tricks left, now's the time!"

Donald did have one grenade left, but he was saving it for a very specific purpose. _I'm not going to let them take us alive. They'll never do..._that_ to me!_ "Nope. We gave it a good shot, but this looks like the end of the line for us!"

"Well then, guess there's nothing left to do but make sure we take down more than we're worth!"

Between the two of them they managed to destroy over two dozen of the little terrors before they closed the gap. Donald heard a scream as Nyssa went down first. One of them leapt at his face and he smashed it away with the butt of his rifle, but the next three were on him before he could bring it back around, knocking him onto his back. Before he even hit the ground he could feel more of them covering his body, pinning down his arms and legs. The spiders clacked their mechanical mandibles together a few times, then he felt sharp pains all over his arms and legs as they fired the tiny little cutting lasers located in their mouths and started dissecting him on the spot. He'd seen it happen to the other members of the squad: the spiders cut them apart, then took the pieces back to their master, who used them to make even more of his demonic little minions. Sometimes they took the cybernetic implants out of their humanoid victims before ripping them to pieces, but not always.

He heard the sound of crunching metal and Nyssa screaming as she fought back, but it was too late - they'd never fight off the entire horde. Still, he had been a Guardian for a very long time, and as a veteran fighter of more battles than he could count, he intended on spitting in their eyes to the very end. He managed to shake his left arm free and grabbed onto the last grenade on his belt, but before he could detonate it a spider knocked it out of his hand. He cursed and tried to get it back, but a pair of mandibles appeared in front of his face, clacked together, then glowed as they prepared to fire their cutting beam right into his eyes.

Donald knew that closing his eyes wouldn't make it hurt any less, but he reflexively did it anyway, which is why he had no idea what happened when he felt all of the mechaniloids on his body suddenly vanish in what felt like a huge rush of air, followed by the sound of several buster shots that passed so close his hairs stood on end. He opened his eyes just in time to see a neon-green disc shoot backward across his vision, where a certain crimson-armored reploid was waiting to catch it.

Zero's attacks had wiped out the mechaniloids attacking the two downed soldiers, but there were still more coming - more than he could keep at bay with just buster shots. _This is going to take something a bit more...flashy. Let's see how well Omega and Model Z play together._

Zero charged power in his fists as he dashed forward, then released it as he punched the ground as hard as he could, shaking the valley floor. He channeled the energy through his arms and into the ground, just like he had with Model Z in his fight with Ashe, but this time it was far more powerful. In the space of a second it shot through the ground at random, like a zig-zagging spider web, lighting up the entire breadth of the valley floor with green lines.

Just as the nearest mechaniloid was about to jump at him the energy burst out of the ground in a green pillar of light, lancing the spider straight through the middle. As the first one blew apart in front of him, dozens of energy beams shot out of the ground at seemingly random points all through the valley, and each one was followed by an exploding mechaniloid. Before the first wave of green beams disappeared, another wave shot up in a different spots, killing another few dozen targets, followed by another, and another. The waves continued until all of the spiders were reduced to scrap, either punched full of holes or completely blown to pieces.

Zero finally released the power he had been channeling into the ground and straightened up, his saber still drawn as he admired his handiwork. _That worked better than expected._ But...there was still something out there. He couldn't explain it, but he could feel...life...coming from...

"Watch out!" Donald yelled from his place on the ground. "There's still a pseudoroid-"

Zero whirled around and raised his saber just in time to parry the two short, yellow energy blades that appeared behind him before they slashed down his back. He quickly launched a counterattack at the blades, which seemed to be floating about five feet off the ground. Despite there being two of them, and Zero being unable to see his opponent, he quickly forced the blades backward several feet, away from the injured Guardians on the ground. Before he could really press his advantage, the blades winked out of existence again, leaving Zero without an opponent.

_Stealth capabilities...Fleuve did mention squad five was attacked by a stealth unit. I can't see it, and I don't hear anything either, but...I can still feel...something..._

The strange feeling served him again as he spun to his right just as the two sabers appeared again, successfully deflecting them and following up with a buster shot from his other hand. The sabers disappeared, but Zero _felt_ something move in front of him, and the plasma burst sailed harmlessly off to hit the valley wall. The _feeling_ continued moving to the left, and on instinct he lashed out at it with his saber. Before he could complete his strike the two yellow blades winked into existence again and deflected his attack.

"Not fair!" A high-pitched female voice screeched, seemingly from nowhere. "My stealth systems are infallible. How did you find me?"

_I have no idea._ Zero fired his Chain Rod in the direction of the sabers and felt it latch onto something with a thunk. The sabers tried to cut the chain, but Zero stopped them. Using the chain as a guideline, he began attacking...whatever it was he was fighting. After making a few saber swipes - all of which were deflected - the Chain Rod suddenly went slack and the two yellow sabers disappeared, once again leaving Zero with no idea where his opponent had gone.

_But I can still _feel_ her. I know she's right over there, backing off to the left, but I have no idea what kind of pseudoroid she is. What is it I'm feeling...?_

Despite not knowing what he was doing, or how he was doing it, he decided to trust the feeling in his gut. He ran at the spot where inexplicably knew the pseudoroid was and feinted a saber slash. The two yellow sabers appeared again to deflect it, but instead he zipped past them, getting in close to whatever it was. He wasn't in a position to use his saber, so instead he brought up his Recoil Rod and fired it into what he suspected was the thing's stomach. He was rewarded with a loud _THUMP_ and the two sabers went flying into the air. Zero shot his Chain Rod out after them, looped it around one of the saber handles, then pulled the pseudoroid back down with all his might. It hit the ground a dozen feet away with a loud _crunch_. The shock of the impact also seemed to damage the pseudoroid's stealth device, as parts of its body began flickering into view.

It quickly picked itself up, its two drawn sabers still held in front to keep Zero at bay. "Curse you, infidel! Look what you've done!" She motioned down at herself with one hand; it was hard to tell, but she appeared to have more than two. "First you destroy my children, then you damage my stealth unit! Inexuseable!"

"Considering I could still see you, and it couldn't cover up your beam weapons, I'd say it was a pretty terrible stealth unit to begin with," Zero said, which enraged the pseudoroid further. "And those 'children' of yours were pathetic."

"How dare you criticize me! My stealth techniques are infallible, my children works of art! Yet, my emissions were zero, but somehow you still...well, it doesn't matter. All I have to do is eliminate you and no one will ever know of this stain on my reputation. Behold, the glorious true form of the one who will be your demise!"

The last flickers of the stealth device disappeared, revealing the entire body of the pseudoroid. It was all jet-black with a few red highlights, and shaped like a giant spider, with the back half of its body parallel with the ground whiile the front half stood vertical. Six legs supported the lower body, while the two foremost arms held the two sabers Zero had been fighting. Four red dots in pools of black sufficed for eyes, all darting around in different directions - they were probably modified infrared sensors. Its entire body was actually quite small; it couldn't have been more than two feet across at its thickest, and was also very thin. However, at the very back of the body was a giant ball of scrap metal that swayed back and forth with every movement the pseudoroid made, giving it the proportions of a real spider. The ball seemed incredibly out of place on the pseudoroid's otherwise sleek and minimalist form.

"No wonder you use a stealth device," Zero remarked. "You're ugly as sin."

"Fool! I am Black Widow the Arachnaroid, and I am a vision of perfection; to imply otherwise is tantamount to heresy! Your punishment: to be sliced to pieces by my _exquisite _swordplay. You should feel privileged that I should _deign _to kill you myself! Only a few of my enemies have I ever deemed worthy enough to feel the bite of my most beautiful blades!"

"Whatever." Tired of listening to the pseudoroid's self-centered blather, Zero charged forward with his saber raised. He feinted high then struck low, but met one of the Widow's sabers in both places, then had to twist out of the way of a two-pronged counter. He caught one of the spider's two blades with his own, flipped it upward, then thrust inward at chest-height, but the spider scurried sideways to avoid it.

_I admit, I'm not used to fighting people who can do that. Having six legs certainly does have its advantages._

"You seem to have some knowledge of the blade," Black Widow said as she backed off slightly, hmm-ing and haah-ing melodramatically. "Very well. I have decided you are an opponent worthy of seeing my true skill. Behold, and prepare for annihilation!"

Black Widow reared up to stand on four legs, and two more yellow beam sabers appeared in the two new legs-that-were-now-hands. She began twirling all four blades in different directions in an intimidating show of her saber-wielding prowess, but Zero merely grunted and attacked again.

Despite her annoying boasting, Zero had to admit the Widow did have some skill, and what she lacked in ability she made up for with speed. Only Omega was Zero's match with just a single saber, and this fool had proved herself incompetent even with two. Three likely would have been a challenge, but with four sabers available it was proving to be difficult to dodge or deflect them all and still find openings to counter. Even when he did his attacks were easily parried or dodged. This called for a different strategy.

After dodging around a rush of attacks, Zero dashed backward briefly to charge his saber, then leapt forward and unleashed it just as Black Widow was about to pursue. As Zero expected the pseudoroid opted to dodge by short-hopping backward rather than try to block, only to discover the buster shot Zero fired as a follow-up. Black Widow dodged the ball of plasma just in time to avoid losing an arm, then narrowly avoided being impaled as she twisted sideways around Zero's fully extended Triple Rod, pushing it upward with two crossed sabers. Zero retracted the rod a split second before the sabers slid together and severed the tip.

Black Widow growled. "Apparently my mastery of the sword is too much for you to handle; you rely on such dirty tricks to defeat me! But no matter; tricks are no match for skill!"

The arachnaroid renewed her attacks, but now they were much faster, using all four sabers for offense. Zero was dodging and deflecting blows from all directions as the now-taller Widow towered over him, giving her a height advantage. He tried to back off and get himself some space to prepare another attack, but she wouldn't let him get more than an arm's length away. He was about to start considering a temporary retreat when he suddenly found all four sabers coming at him at once from four different angles, from the front and both sides, leaving him no room to dodge.

He took a split second to think to himself, _looks like I need to change tactics. My buster and rod aren't doing me any good here, so..._

He rolled to the right, avoiding the two overhand attacks from the top hands, and blocked the attack from the right hand with a one-handed parry. As the Widow's left hand swept across at him he brought up his other hand and materialized Model Z's green saber in it to deflect the attack.

"What the...where did you get that?" Black Widow sputtered, so surprised that she forgot to press her assault. Zero seized the advantage, spinning around and slashing at the pseudoroid with both blades. Black Widow recovered just in time to scoot backward, but Zero leapt forward with a charged saber attack from one hand, which Widow barely blocked with her top two arms, while the bottom two fought off Zero's rush of saber swipes down below. She tried retreating to the side, but found her path blocked by a twirling saber as Zero spun to block her escape. Unable to retreat, she went on the offensive again, but with two sabers Zero proved to be more than she could handle. After a brief flurry of blades Zero found an opening and unleashed a charged smash, but instead of connecting solidly with the pseudoroid's fragile-looking main body, he found his saber lodged in the large ball of scrap while the Widow dodged to the right, having abruptly detached herself from it.

_What the hell...?_

"Ah-ha, I've got you now!" She cried triumphantly. "Go, my chidren! Cut him to pieces!"

The ball of scrap suddenly exploded outward, sending fragments in every direction. Having been made from scrap, each piece was made up of slightly different components, but each one resembled a small spider in some form or another. Zero realized what was happening just as the chunks of 'scrap' suddenly came to life around him and latched on.

_Oh, this is just..._

A hundred pairs of small red eyes all locked on him as the army of miniature spider mechaniloids readied their glowing laser cutters; the ones already attached to his body had already started. Zero's body was made from a much tougher material than the reploids they'd just been cutting apart, but it still hurt. He starting whirling his sabers in all dierctions to fight off the swarm, but they were everywhere at once, and after a few managed to get through, the rest soon followed. Soon he was overwhelmed as they attached themselves to his entire body, keeping him from shaking them off as he felt the sharp, lancing pains of their lasers in so many places he couldn't tell exactly how many there were.

Black Widow cackled with glee at seeing her opponent fall under the wave of her mechanical children. Before long she couldn't even make out the shape of Zero's body anymore, just a mound of writhing spiders skittering around each other, trying to get at the reploid buried underneath. "How does it feel? You're not the only one with cheap tricks! Devour him, my pretties, cut him to pieces like he did the rest of your brothers and sisters!"

"You..."

The Widow abruptly stopped laughing. "What? How are you-"

"...are really starting..."

Black Widow let out a sound that sounded something akin to a squawk as _something_ rippled through the air, like a soundless thunderclap. "What's going on?"

"...to _piss me off._"

The entire mass of mechaniloids suddenly blew upward and outward, sending little spider parts flying everywhere. Most of the ones on the outer layers bounced along the ground a few times before skidding to a halt, but anything within a foot of the center was instantly blown to pieces. Shocked at the sudden turn of events, Black Widow watched in silence as, in the center of the destruction, Zero rose to his feet, the pulsing glow of Model Z's Overdrive emanating from his entire body.

He struck even before the last of the mechaniloid pieces had reached the ground, green and purple sabers extended. Seeing that she was suddenly in for the fight of her life, Black Widow stood back on last two legs as a third pair of yellow beam sabers appeared in her two new hands. She'd needed four legs to keep her balance while her scrap ball was attached, but now she was free to use all six arms.

And as she soon discovered, she needed them all. Zero's twin swords flew like a hurricane, and it was all the pseudoroid could do to keep the blades away. Even with the ability to keep track of eight independent sabers - her rearmost legs could hold weapons as well - she still couldn't keep up with the movements of Zero's measly two blades, which seemed to be in two places at once, or sometimes even three. It infuriated her.

"How? How are you doing this?" She screeched. "I am Black Widow, the greatest master of the blade ever created, and I demand to know!"

"Just another maverick to me."

Both of Zero's sabers came crashing down at once in an overhand charged strike, and it took everything the Widow had to deflect it away. She stumbled backward a few steps from the force, and before she could fully recover she saw Zero dashing at her, his sabers held low. She managed to parry him with two blades, but Zero shot past her, both dodging her clumsy counterattack and setting himself up for an attack on her back. He stopped and reversed direction on a dime, launching himself diagonally into the air, saber held out to the side. The Widow realized what was happening just in time to hop sideways and keep the blade from severing an arm or two. Zero reached a point in the air a few feet away from her, then abruptly turned and fired a stream of fully-charged buster shots from his hand. She tried to deflect them, but was forced to start dodging after the power of the first few shots hitting her sabers nearly shorted them out. She danced out of the way of several shots, then threw up her sabers to deflect another attack when Zero shot back down at her.

She felt Zero's sabers connect with hers and attempted to deflect his weight to the side, hoping to overbalance him, but was surprised when the crimson reploid suddenly vanished. However, she didn't have time to give a startled yelp before he appeared again, crouched by her feet. There wasn't enough time to swing her sabers down to protect herself, so she threw herself backward as Zero slashed horizontally at her exposed body, desperately trying to escape a deathblow. Somehow she managed to avoid the worst of the attack, but she still felt a flash of pain as the saber cut into her armor - not quite a penetrating blow, but far too close for comfort.

Then the most surprising thing of all happened. Before the Widow reached the ground, her entire body suddenly felt like it was on fire. She tried to scream, but found that all of her systems had locked up - she couldn't move, not even to make a sound. She started to panic, failing to notice the black energy field that had appeared around her, crackling with dark lightning as it held her suspended in midair.

Zero had no idea what he was doing. As soon as his Z-Saber had touched Widow's body, instincts had taken over. Whatever he was _feeling_ from the pseudoroid had suddenly become so intense that it felt like he could reach out and touch it...so he had. And then he _squeezed_, and the black field had appeared. He had a vague recollection of doing this once before, but he couldn't remember what it was, or where he'd learned it. The knowledge was just _there_.

The terrified pseudoroid floated helplessly in the air as Zero brought his two sabers together, melding the data from Model Z's green saber into the hilt of Omega's purple. The combined blades turned jet-black, seemingly sucking in all the light around them as they grew to over twice their combined length. It looked unwieldy, but Zero handled the weight in one hand with ease, his face devoid of expression.

An average, modern-day reploid is capable of processing images from its optical sensors at the rate of one thousand per second, or once each millisecond. For reploids who had upgraded their optical sensors for combat purposes, such as how Donald and Nyssa had done, that rate was doubled...but from their vantage point on the ground nearby, not even they could see what happened next.

For Zero, on the other hand, everything seemed to slow to a crawl. He could feel every individual grain of dirt under his boots, see every single flash of electricity sparking from Black Widow's open chest wound...and most importantly, he could feel a _pulsing_, coming from somewhere deep within the pseudoroid's body. It was the same _feeling_ he'd felt before, but this time it was much stronger, like it was sitting right in front of him. He had no idea what it was, but he instinctively knew what he had to do.

He fired his dash thrusters and shot off the ground, his blackened saber blade pointed upward in his left hand. It pierced Black Widow's body with pinpoint precision, striking at the center of...whatever it was he could _feel_. At the exact same instant the blade made contact he _squeezed_ again, and the crackling black energy field imploded, all of its force directed at the tip of his saber as it ran straight through the arachnaroid's torso.

Black Widow had the vague feeling of something being _ripped_ out of her, but didn't have time to consider what it might have been before she was torn to pieces in a contained explosion so massive it should have leveled the entire mountainside. The scraps that remained of her body were instantly vaporized as the residual force then exploded outward in a relatively unimpressive blast, blasting dirt and rock across the valley floor, leaving no trace of the pseudoroid behind. As Zero landed neatly on the far side of where the Widow had been standing, the remainder of her tiny spider drones stopped moving and collapsed with one loud, collective clatter of metal hitting rock, their red optic sensors slowly fading to black as they shut down for good.

_What did I just...do?_ Zero wondered as he watched his black saber disappear, replaced by the purple glow of Omega's. Whatever it was he'd just done, it had overloaded Model Z to the point where he couldn't materialize the green saber again - a few minutes of recharging would fix that, but he might not be able to activate its Overdrive for some time. _I hit Black Widow, but I also hit...something else. I saw...data. And then I destroyed...no, I _deleted_ it. _He shook his head. _But, that doesn't make sense. What did I delete? And...where did I delete it from...?_

The sound of the two reploids he'd saved trying to rise snapped him back to the situation at hand - his thoughts would have to wait. The two Guardians leaned heavily on each other as they shakily got to their feet.

"You're from squad five?" Zero asked brusquely.

The man nodded. "I'm Donald, this is Nyssa. We were ambushed a short ways down this valley. We were going to set up for a crossfire from the tops of the cliffs, but they'd already snuck into position. Before we even had time to unstrap our weapons they were everywhere. We were giving as good as we got until that pseudoroid showed up."

Model P's report had indicated that three pseudoroids had been ready for deployment when he'd left Thomas's service, but he hadn't known when or where they would appear. It had been a sticking point of their entire plan, as a single pseudoroid was capable of decimating entire Guardian units, but it was a risk they'd needed to take. As harsh as it sounded, Zero thought they'd gotten rid of this one with relatively light casualties, compared to some of the alternatives.

Nyssa remained silent - she seemed to be having trouble keeping her head from just rolling around between her shoulders. A quick glance revealed that several of the motor circuits in her neck had been severed by the spiderlings' welding lasers. She'd live, but at the moment she was probably in a world of pain.

"Where's the rest of your unit?"

"Out there," Donald replied, gesturing tersely down the valley, the way they'd come. He didn't seem willing to explain any further, nor did he need to.

"All right. You two get over to squad seven and use their mobile transerver to get back to the _Faith_; right now you're just a couple of casualties waiting to happen. There's a reserve unit right behind me that should arrive any minute now to relieve you. I'll hold the area until then." _Which shouldn't be too hard - looks like that pseudoroid was the last of the stealth unit, and they haven't sent any backup. Cocky bastards._

Donald gave a half-hearted salute in acknowledgement, then limped out of the valley.

"Donald and...Nyssa, was it?"

The reploid glanced back over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"You two did well here. If you hadn't held as long as you did, this battle might already be over. Good job."

"Don't tell us." Donald waved his free arm towards the valley, where the rest of his unit lay in pieces. "Tell them."

Zero was silent for a moment, then nodded. Before he could voice a reply he received a signal on his communicator, so he dismissed the two reploids with a wave. "Get moving."

"_Zero, status report. What's going on out there?"_ It was Aile's voice, but the no-nonsense tone she used was definitely borrowed from Model L, whether she knew it or not. Under different circumstances it might have caused him to chuckle.

"Squad five was ambushed by a stealth unit, led by a spider-model stealth pseudoroid, and were essentially wiped out. I arrived in time to eliminate the pseudoroid and save two survivors; they're headed over to squad seven for transfer. I've cleared the way for the reserve unit, they should be here any second to fill the gap."

The curse that came out of Aile's mouth _definitely_ wasn't hers. Model L was certainly rubbing off on her. "_A whole unit gone already? That's going to make things...wait. Hold on a minute._" The line was silent for a moment. "_Okay, I just got word from Vent; he's nearing the Hunter camp. You'd better bust it over there if you want to make it in time."_

"Affirmative, moving out."

Before leaving, Zero paused for a moment to glance at his surroundings. The piles of broken mechaniloids, the scorch marks that were all that remained of Black Widow, the holes in the valley walls from where Buster shots had ripped into it...it was all disturbingly familiar.

_It's been two hundred years, but humanity still hasn't learned from its mistakes. X...I wonder, are we ever going to reach that paradise you always dreamed of? Or is humanity going to wipe itself out first? In some ways they've come so far, but in others, they're still right where they started, destroying everything in sight._

Well aware of the irony of that thought, the God of Destruction decided to leave the heavy thinking to his blue-armored friend as he dashed off through the valley at top speed. He'd never been very good at that sort of thing.

* * *

**Author's Note**

I'm not quite dead! :D

You know, after I finished the Omega part I promised myself I'd never make another part this long. Now here I am, four parts later, and this one's even _longer_. -_-

Black Burn is from ZX, Area O. You know, the burning cityscape where you fight Prometheus and Pandora at the end. I really like that song, for some reason. The scenery is pretty great too. Later on, once we make it into Legion proper, you'll see me trying to imitate it.

If you somehow hadn't figured it out, Black Widow is modeled after a black widow spider. I figured it made a decent name. I made up the word arachnaroid, which I think it pretty neat. Spideroid would have worked but it's not nearly as fun to say. Her personality is a bit wacky because she originally started out as a he, then I decided that just didn't make any sense. The hardest part was coming up with something that could get the upper hand on Omega Zero with Model Z for a few seconds so I'd have an excuse to whip out the dual-sabers and Overdrive. You'll be seeing more of those in the future.

There was also going to be another action scene right when Zero first lands where he runs around blowing up mavericks for a while, but I decided to word-montage over it, since this thing was already friggin' long. The pseudoroid battle ended up being longer than I thought it would. Hopefully nobody finds it too drawn-out.

This part has more references to other material (movies, games, books, etc.) than any other in the story. I'll bet nobody can come up with all of them. I was going to list them all down here but decided it would be more fun to leave you guessing. Feel free to point anything out in a review, I'll tell you whether you were right or not. ;) C'mon, it'll be fun! And maybe it'll keep you busy while I spent four months+ writing the next part. -_-

I'll give you a head start. The thing with Zero disappearing into midair was from X5. He gets this attack where when you dash and attack, Zero stops and shoots out this little image of him, which attacks then disappears. (I forget what it's called.) It's actually kind of useless in the game (though I recently discovered you can jump after using it) but in a non-gameplay setting it's pretty handy. What Widow thought was Zero was actually the image, while the real Zero landed in front of her. The killing move on Black Widow was Dark Hold, which I ripped the description straight out of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, with the exception of the black saber bit. (I was actually tempted to have Zero yell "22 BILLION DAMAGE!" afterward but resisted.) As for the bit about deleting data...that's my secret for now. /evillaughter

Next chapter: what the hell is Vent up to?

And as always, a sincere thank-you to the people who continue to favorite, alert, and review this ongoing ridiculous epic of mine. Nothing 's a better motivator than getting favorite'd when you haven't done a real update in five months. You guys rock!


	28. Part 25: Bullet Drive

**Part 25: Bullet Drive**

The bridge of the _Faith_ was a flurry of activity with Aile at it center, leaning over a holographic map of the combat area, spewing orders out as fast as the battle reports came in. Nothing escaped her, and she had a solution for every situation. Fleuve and the three operators were all surprised at how authoritative the girl was being - not to mention how incredibly well she was doing - but none of them had time to question it as she barked out orders in rapid succession. Fleuve just figured Model L was coaching her along like she had the last time.

"Have squad seventeen fall back to this area here, while squad thirteen advances to this ridge to give them cover fire. Tell them to watch out for that laser weapon; if they do it right they should be able to destroy it without ever letting it fire a shot. Tell squad nine to move west to cover their flank."

"Squad twenty-two was just hit by an aerial bombardment, reporting heavy losses," Gardenia said. "They're falling back."

"Who the hell said they could do that?" Aile exclaimed angrily. "If they fall back we could lose that entire line! Tell them to hold until reinforcements arrive!" She turned on her communicator. "Zero! Trouble in combat grid E-four, need you to drop in. It should be on your way."

"_Affirmative_," came the reply, with the sound of exploding mavericks in the background.

"Squad nineteen is reporting they're under heavy fire, it looks like a few enemy units have grouped together to make a push."

"What?" Looking down at the map, she saw that there were now an abnormally large number of red dots swarming over squad nineteen's postion. "Bloody hell, I missed that. ...Okay, tell nineteen to unload everything they've got, then fall back to...right around here. Bring our starboard cannons around and unload everything we've got on their advance. How long before-" The ship shook slightly as the _Sword of Hope_ fired, answering her question before she could ask it.

"Direct hit on the eastern troop carrier, it's going down," Tulip reported. "Looks like impact will be in...grid F-six." The operator blinked. "Right on top of the artillery battery."

"Damn I'm good," Aile allowed herself a satisfied smirk, then glanced across the map again. "Okay, tell Silure his next target is...this one here, grid B-six. It looks like it's going to try and drop something, and I don't intend to-" She stopped midsentence when she felt someone lightly grab her arm. She spun around and found Fleuve standing beside her, a mix of conern and curiosity on his face. "What is it Fleuve?"

"Aile, are you...feeling all right?" He asked carefully.

"What the hell kind of question is that?" She replied angrily, shrugging him off. "I'm trying to save as many lives as I can in a war that, by all rights, we shoudl have already lost. How do you think I'm feeling?"

"It's just that, well...you aren't exactly acting like yourself."

"That's ridiculous, I'm always like this, you've just never-"

_Model L!_

She cut herself off abruptly as she realized what she was saying. _Sorry, I got a little carried away._

You're_ the one who wanted to keep this a secret. I don't see why we can't just tell everyone you're in control of my body right now._

_ Because Fleuve would start asking far too many questions, and we don't have time to answer any of them. Trust me, it's easier this way._

_ Then stop screwing it up. He's watching you...I mean, me. ...Whatever. Stop making it look like I'm insane!_

_ I'll remind you that this was _your_ idea._

_ Well it only makes sense. You're the one organizing everyone anyway, it's faster if I don't have to dictate for you. Now pay attention!_

Seeing that Fleuve was, in fact, staring at her like she was a lunatic, Model L replaced the scowl on her face - Aile's face - with her most reassuring smile. "I'm sorry, Fleuve. You're right, I'm not acting like myself, and I know it. It's just that I'm not quite used to doing stuff like this, and I'm afraid Model L is rubbing off on me a little. I assure you, I'm feeling..." Model L tried to think of something Aile would say here to reassure the little man, but failed to come up with anything. Luckily, Aile sensed her distress and filled in the blank.

"...Peachy." Somehow she managed to not to wince. _I can't believe I just said that._

_Oh come on, it's cute, and it's totally something I'd say. You want to pretend you're me, you have to act like me too!_

_ ...I'm starting to think that maybe keeping this a secret wasn't such a great idea after all..._

_ Heehee._

Fleuve gave her a quizzical look, but seemed to take her at her word. "I understand. I don't feel particularly comfortable doing this either, but there's nothing we can do about it. I was simply worried for you, that's all."

Model L smiled. "That's very sweet of you Fleuve, but really, I'm fine. Let's just do our best to get this over with so we can go back to doing what makes us comfortable."

Fleuve nodded, then returned to the captain's chair, ordering Margeurite to bring the _Faith_ around for their next target.

_See? I told you he's a nice guy, once you get to know him._

_ Maybe, but I bet if we told him I was controlling your body he'd drag us down to his lab for analysis before we could blink._

_ I'm not taking that bet._

Somehow Model L managed to keep the victorious grin off her face. Apparently, as part of the Biomerge process, Aile and Model L discovered they could communicate through thoughts directed at each other, but only while Model L was in control. It was proving to be quite beneficial, both for rapid sharing of information and the occasional entertaining banter. And best of all...

_Backed up against a wall, odds against us, the fate of the world on the line, and it's up to me to keep everyone alive..._Model L couldn't help but smile and crack her knuckles as she bent back to work. _It feels good to be important again._

* * *

Vent felt bad for everyone else as he sailed down the rails towards the Hunter Camp. They were all out on the field fighting and dying, and here he was, safe inside the lead car of the high-speed passenger train, cruising down the rails without a single maverick in sight. He knew why he was here, of course, and soon he would be in more danger than anyone else in the entire Guardian Corps - aside from Zero and the other Mega Men - but right now he felt helpless.

"How much farther to Hunter Camp?" He asked the Guardian at the controls for what was at least the tenth time in the past five minutes

The good-natured reploid soldier humored him, only giving an exasperated sigh and rolling his eyes as he replied, "another ten minutes, sir."

"Sorry, I'm just a little nervous," Vent said sheepishly. Normally he would have told the soldier not to call him sir, but this time his mind was too preoccupied with other things to notice.

_This is it, the point of no return. Either we stop Thomas and keep the damage contained to Legion, or we fail and his maverick army spreads the virus to the rest of the world. Or worse, he finds a way past Fleuve's innoculation, and we'll just make things worse when the entire Guardian corps gets infected. No point in worrying about that now though, all we can do is push ahead and hope that-_

The train suddenly rocked violently, enough to make Vent and the others in the room stumble and brace themselves against the wall. The worst of it was over quickly, but Vent could still hear a loud hum in the air that hadn't been there moments before. "Does anyone else hear that...?"

He was answered when someone in the next car yelled, "Maverick drill transport approaching! Keep them off the train!"

"What?" Vent pushed a soldier aside as he rushed back a car, arriving just in time to see a hole get blown in the side of it, sending several Guardians flying against the wall, some of which didn't get up again. The ones who managed to recover began firing as Galleon landing parties appeared in the opening, using the jumper packs strapped to their backs to leap over from their small, lightly armored transport. Within seconds of landing the first two mavericks were riddled with bullet holes and stumbled backward out of the car, smashing to pieces on the ground as it sped by, but the two behind them were already firing, forcing the Guardians to dive behind what little cover was available, mostly in the form of scrap metal or ruined seats. Vent dashed forward and blew away that pair and the next with his two charged Buster shots, then looked out the gaping hole in the side of the car just in time to see a plasma grenade - what had likely been used to damage the car in the first place - hurling through the air towards him. He shot it out of the air with one hand, making a bright flash of light in the air that was quickly left behind as the vehicles sped forward.

With Vent's Buster shots providing heavy cover fire, the Guardians quickly had the Galleons pinned down inside their own transport. The two sides continued to exchange fire, but neither side were taking any casualties, and any attempt the Galleons made to cross the gap was met with a deadly plasma crossfire. Seeing that the situation was essentially under control, Vent told the soldiers to keep up the pressure while he went to check on the other train cars.

Not counting the lead car, which held the engine and only a handful of troops, the train was five cars long. The first four each had one full squad of Guardians, while the last one was occupied by a group of Hunters. The Guardians in the second and third cars were engaged in firefights with more mavericks through the windows, while the fourth car hadn't heard the initial attack and had been caught by surprise by another transport bursting from the ground on the other side and blowing away nearly half the car before the Guardians inside even knew what hit them. Vent arrived just in time to keep them from being overrun, successfully fighting them back off the train, but they had already taken heavy casualties. He knew if he left they would quickly be overwhelmed again.

"We should pull our forces out of these cars and into the others," Model X advised. "If we then detach the cars we may be able to increase speed and outrun the transports."

"Good idea," Vent agreed. He told the Guardians still in the train car to hold their positions for a moment while he went back to check on the Hunters. He fired another pair of Buster shots to cover himself as he ran across the open gap, keeping the Galleons from firing back at him until he was out of sight on the other side. He opened the back door of the car he was in and stepped out into the open air between the two cars, where a pair of heavy magnetic locks held them together. The door slid closed behind him again as he passed through, and as soon as he approached the other car its door slid open to admit him.

Vent wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to see inside the last car, but he _had _expected it to actually be there. Instead, the entire back half of the car was missing, and he saw a large number of Hunters huddling behind broken seats that had been piled up haphazardly near the door - he couldn't come up with a number at a glance, but it seemed like they were mostly all accounted for. Through the large gaping hole that was now the back of the train, a number of Galleons with high-powered plasma rifles and grenade launchers were firing into the train, and as soon as the door finished opening, several of them turned their weapons on it and fired. Vent sent off a few blind shots to cover himself as he dove and rolled into the nearest group of five Hunters.

"Nice to see ye drop in," a large, grey-bearded Hunter remarked casually, then lifted his rifle over the edge of the seats and fired blindly, pulling it back down again a couple seconds later when the other side of his cover was pelted with plasma. "Good thing these buggers are made o' ceratanium, heh? If'n they weren't we'd all be filled with a bunch'a wee holes by now."

Vent recalled hearing that Innerpeace had become increasingly more paranoid about maverick attacks, and as such had been using more durable materials in the construction of public utilities. Ironically, he'd always thought they had been taking it a bit overboard with the plasma-resistant public transportation. "Yeah, no kidding. So, what's the situation? Apart from the obvious."

"Dang blasted thing came outta nowhere!" Another Hunter yelled from behind a different set of seats, flinching every time a plasma burst hit the other side of his cover. "We're all sittin' around shootin' the breeze when suddenly there's this ripping sound so loud you woulda thought the world was ending, and whoosh, half the car falls off!"

Someone else behind a third pile of seats picked up the story as the second came under Galleon fire again. "We all got off before the whole thing bounced away, but these Galleons have been keeping us pinned down under cover, shootin' like crazy whenever one of us goes for the door."

The large man Vent was crouching beside spoke again. "The funny thing is, they's not tryin' too hard to be gettin' on board, y'hear? Mostly just blastin' their jimmies at us and keepin' us from gettin' out."

"Vent, look over there," Model P's voice interrupted, giving him a mental nudge. Vent looked in the indicated place and immediately saw what had caught Model P's attention - there were seven large, thick, metallic cables going from the Galleon transport to the jagged sides of the train car. Just as he noticed them, a Galleon fired an eighth out of a launcher. It latched onto the left side, making four cables on each side.

"Well would ya look at that," the large Hunter beside him remarked. "What do ye think they're tryin' to do wit those?"

The Hunter's question was answered by the screeching of grinding metal as the Galleon transport slammed on the brakes, jolting the entire train backward as it dragged the transport along behind. Through the entire length of the ship both Guardians and Galleons alike were tossed around by the sudden loss of speed, but Vent and the Hunters, having already been crouched against a wall, didn't go far.

_They're trying to drag the train to a stop!_ Vent realized the boarding parties were just a diversion - if enough transports managed to attach themselves to the train, eventually they wouldn't be able to drag them all and the train would grind to a halt, making everyone on it a sitting duck.

An ear-piercing scream of twisting metal rang through the air, followed seconds later by all the windows in the train car shattering. Vent shielded his eyes, then looked up to see holes starting to appear in the sides of the car. _Or maybe they'll just tear the whole thing to shreds first._

He looked to the Hunters still crouched beside him. "We need to get out of here, _now!_"

One of the smaller Hunters gave him a sarcastic look. "What do you think we've been trying to do?"

"I'll keep them busy while the rest of you head for the door. Once you're out, detach this car, and head up the train. Spread the word for everyone to get into the front two cars, then get the train to accelerate. Hopefully we can outrun these transports."

"If we start detaching the cars, how are you going to get back?" someone asked, followed by another screech of metal as the sides of the car strained even further.

"Don't worry about me! Just go!" He fired a pair of charged shots out the back of the train car, followed by a series of weaker shots to cover himself as he jumped into the open, drawing fire from most of the Galleons. "I said _GO!_"

He dodged and weaved as best he could in the cramped confines of the train car, taking every opportunity he could to fire a charged shot off, but for every Galleon he actually managed to destroy another one took its place. He tried firing a shot or two at the cables as well, but that proved useless. The power of his shots was too spread out to affect the material, and the shots simply passed through like the cables weren't even there. A high-powered beam weapon like his ZX-Saber may hve been able to cut them, but he doubted that either of Model P's weapons would be strong enough to cut through it in time to stop he train from being torn apart.

After a few seconds that felt like minutes, Vent spared a glance back to see how many Hunters had escaped. To his dismay, most of them were still in the car - despite his best efforts to create a distraction the Galleons were still managing to cover the door, allowing only a few Hunters the chance to escape. The wheels of the train screamed ever louder in his ears, and Vent knew it wouldn't last much longer.

_Time for a change in tactics._ He switched to Model P and dashed forward, covering his advance with a shower of kunai. He tried his best to dodge the flurry of Galleon plasma bullets as he shot forward, but took a few hits before he jumped off the back of the car. He activated Model P's Overdrive just before he landed on the transport, passing through the assembled Galleon troops as a purple blur. He spun on the landing area and unleashed a flurry of knives at the nearest Galleons, turning three of them into pincushions as switched his Overdrive off again.

At the back of the landing deck he saw a small hatch that descended down into the transport, where a steady stream of Galleons was coming up onto the deck. As much as he wanted to go down and stop the mavericks at their source, he needed to keep the ones on the deck shooting at him so the Hunters could escape the train car. Kunai appeared in his hands as he dashed towards the closest Galleon who was still firing into the train, leaping over two who were firing at him. Within seconds all three of them were blown to pieces, and Vent was moving towards his next targets.

It didn't take long to clear the deck of enemies, but more continued pouring out the exit hatch - Model P's scanner estimated there were at least twenty more inside. Vent spared a moment as he ducked past plasma shots to wonder how that many Galleons could be packed into such a small space, but it didn't matter; they were all focused on him now, which means the Hunters could escape. He glanced over at the train car and saw the last few of them escaping, which meant it was time for him to bail; he couldn't afford to be stuck on the transport while the train sped off into the Hunter Camp.

He turned to jump off the transport just as he heard a loud _ka-CHUNK_ from the train car as the Hunters disengaged the magnetic seal, allowing the transport's towing cables to drag the entire car down. Not wanting to be left behind, Vent leapt off the transport and onto the roof of the rapidly slowing train car, dashing against the air as it pushed him backward. He reached the far side of the car with the intention of jumping to the next, but by the time he got there his car had been dragged too far back, putting the next car out of his reach.

"Dammit! What am I going to do now?"

"Vent, try this," Model P said, followed by a brief download of data. "It should suffice."

"Nice! Why didn't you show me how to do this earlier?" Vent exclaimed, seeing the operating instructions for what looked like a retractable grappling hook flash across his vision. He could apparently materialize it in a similar way he did his throwing knives, but only from his left hand. That left the right still available to toss kunai at opponents as he swung by.

"It was unneccesary," Model P replied plainly.

Vent took a few steps back to get a running start, then leapt off the car and shot the hook forward. As soon as he heard and felt the solid _thunk_ of contact he reeled the line back in, pulling himself across the distance in a flash. Clinging desperately to the side of the train car, he knocked several times on the door leading inside. After a moment the door slid open and Vent swung in, landing at the feet of the large, grey-bearded Hunter he'd been sitting beside a few minutes ago.

"Hey. How's it going." Vent said nonchalantly.

"Pretty great, thanks t'ye. I gotta say though, ye sure were cuttin'er close. Ye only had aboot seven seconds ta spare."

"Seven seconds until what?" Vent asked, and had his question immediately answered as the train car he'd just jumped off of exploded in a massive fireball, undoubtedly taking the attached maverick transport with it.

"The boys an' I figgered we'd make sure none o'them maverick chaps could come after us," the big man explained sheepishly, realizing that he'd almost detonated the young Chosen One as well. "I did'na think you'd be comin' back that way."

Vent had been almost blown up enough times that all he did was shrug, then stopped to examine the situation. The mavericks had attempted to board this train car as well, but with the extra Hunters as backup they were essentially trapped inside their transport by a hail of gunfire. They had successfully attached one of the docking cables to the side of the car, but that wasn't enough to drag the whole car down.

"We're dropping this one too," Vent said to those close enough to hear him. "Spread the word for everyone to start moving into the next car. When this one's empty, do the same thing you did to that one." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"Aye mate," the Hunter said with a nod, then they all went to plan a coordinated retreat. Vent headed straight for the next car to make sure everything was under control there as well, stopping briefly at the hole in the wall to shower the maverick transport with kunai.

In the next car he found the situation was still under control. The Guardians he'd left in charge had rearranged some seats to provide better firing positions on the mavericks. He found the captain he'd been talking to earlier hiding behind a nearby seat. "How are we holding up?"

"It's tough keeping them under control, but so far so good. They've basically stopped trying to get on board and just keep trying to attach some giant hooks. We've been mostly trading plasma fire and grenades while we shoot down those cables."

Vent nodded in acknowledgement. "Good job. We're detaching the rear two cars, so in a minute you'll have plenty of backup. After that I want you to all to keep heading up the train - the fewer cars we have, the better off we are."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Hunters and Guardians began streaming in behind him. Before anyone could say anything, however, a Guardian soldier burst through the door leading to the engine. "Sir, we've got a problem!" He yelled over the din of battle. "There's something blocking the tracks a few clicks ahead!

"What?" _There's no way they could have blocked off the rails that fast. What could it be...?_ He managed to sneak a look outside a window without being shot at and, using Model P-enhanced vision, saw another train coming down the tracks, far ahead of them. It was only one car, but that was more than enough. He estimated it would only be a few minutes before they collided.

* * *

Model L was about to ask Gardenia for another report on squad twenty-two's situation when she received a signal from Vent on her communicator. As soon as she turned it on he was yelling at her through the earpiece. "_Aile, I'm in trouble! There's a train car heading out from Hunter's Camp on the same rail!"_  
"Damn!" She glanced down at the map, which showed her the position of Vent's train, but showed the rest of the track clear. "I don't see...wait, there it is!" A big red mark appeared farther down the track. "How did they hide that from us? ...Can you turn around?"

_"They waited until after I passed the last switching station to show up!"_

Model L growled under her breath as she tried to hurriedly puzzle out a solution. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she really hadn't considered the scenario - an oversight on her part that was about to cost a lot of lives. _We don't have time to think like that,_ Aile scolded. _Think! We need to find a way out of this!_

_Hey, aren't I supposed to be the "cool under pressure" one around here? You trying to take my job?_

_ Just pay attention._

A quick glance at the map had the situation looking grim. They were already deep in maverick territory, being swarmed by transports, so jumping off was a pretty futile gesture - they'd be doomed just as fast as if they'd hit the train. She had no doubt that Vent would be fine, but there was little chance of the rest of his forces getting out alive. The trains could only turn around at specified switching stations - Vent had said he'd just passed one, and the next one wasn't until the Hunter Base. They were travelling too fast for Zero to get there in time - he wasn't supposed to arrive until after the train - and if they used artillery fire they would destroy the tracks too, which would probably have just a disastrous an outcome when Vent's train reached it.

"_Sis? I could use some advice here!"_

"I..."

"_Don't worry, I got you covered!"_ Ashe's voice came over the communicator.

Model L blinked in confusion, then looked down at the table, ignoring for the time being that Ashe had somehow been eavesdropping. "How? You're almost three kilometers away, and you've got" - she did some quick distance calculations in her head - "three minutes to get there _and_ get it off the tracks!" She noticed another red blip on the table right beside Ashe's position. "And you're currently fighting a pseudoroid! Why didn't you tell me?"

"_Oh, him? This guy's nothing, really. Kind of embarassing. Hey, pointy-face, over here! Yeah, I'm talking to you. Wow, your aim is terrible. Anyway, it's just one car, right?"_

"Yes, but-"

"_Then don't worry! One measly little train car is nothing compared to the Model A Mega Man! I'm friggin' awesome! I'll be there in a minute, so just hang tight!"_

Model L only thought about it for a moment - as impossible as it seemed, she didn't really have any choice but to trust Ashe could do as she said. "All right, get moving. You're down to two minutes and fifty-three seconds."

"_I'm on it!"_

"_I'm counting on you, Ashe!"_

Both of the Mega Men turned off their communicators to deal with their respective problems, and Model L went back to barking orders around the command center, trying to get three steps ahead of her opponents. But inside her own head, Aile couldn't think of anything but her brother's safety.

_Please Ashe, don't be too late..._

* * *

"Ashe, I sure hope you have a plan," Model A said.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine! I got this all figured-"

"NO ONE IGNORES ME! DIE, PUNY HUMAN!"

Ashe dove sideways as lightning arced past her, continuing on until it reached a small maverick vehicle, which promptly blew up, destroying everyone inside. Having done this several times before, she knew to immediately leap sideways again as the pseudoroid she was battling charged right through the spot where she landed, destroying a few nearby mavericks as he shot past her harmlessly. Despite all his yelling she hadn't caught his name yet, but he was a quadruped, with wheels on all four legs that he used to charge forward and try to impale her on the massive foot-long spike on the end of his long, narrow head. He was also over twice her height and probably weighed more than a small building.

"Man, this guy's a piece of work," Ashe remarked casually as she came to a halt beside the wreckage of a maverick tank. "He only does two things, and always in the same order. Even Fleuve could dodge this guy."

"I HEAR YOU, PUNY HUMAN!" the pseudoroid yelled again as he turned himself around, which itself mangled another few mavericks. _This guy has the exact opposite of style,_ Ashe thought to herself, as the pseudoroid continued ranting angrily. "I AM BLITZ THE RHINOCEROID, AND I WILL DESTROY YOU!" He decided to forego the use of his lightning cannon attack and instead charged forward again.

"Okay, so maybe he's a bigger threat to the mavericks than us, but he's going to be a serious problem if we want to go help Vent!" Model A said. "He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would just let us go!"

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll figure something out by the time I get there."

Ashe did a forward-flip over the rhino as he charged under her, smashing head-first into the tank wreckage. Despite being possibly four times his weight, when Blitz and the tank collided, it was the tank that went flying, leaving Blitz looking none the worse for wear.

Which gave Ashe an idea so devious she couldn't help but grin.

She landed gracefully and immediately spun on one foot to look at the rhino. "Hey, badger-face, or whatever it is you're supposed to be. Can't you even catch a little girl like me?"  
"SILENCE!" The pseudoroid roared. "I WILL NOT BE MOCKED BY A-"

"'Puny human', yeah, we get it. If I'm so puny, why am I kicking your ass?" She fired off a charged Reflect Laser, which hit him square on the nose, then bounced off and hit a couple of nearby mavericks. At this point, most of them had begun to steer clear of the two fighters for fear of becoming collateral damage.. "Come on, weakling! Shoe me what you got!"

"INFIDEL! HOW DARE YOU CHALLENGE THE MIGHT OF BLITZ THE RHINOCEROID! I WILL CRUSH YOU BENEATH MY MIGHTY WHEELS LIKE THE BUG YOU ARE!"

"Oh yeah? You couldn't catch a Galleon on a hoverscooter!"

Blitz let out a mighty roar and stamped his front feet several times. "ENOUGH! PREPARE TO BE DESTROYED!" He charged forward, the wheels on his feet touching down to give him the speed of a small truck.

"Just try it!" Ashe yelled, then spun around as she A-Trans'ed into Argoyle and sped in the direction of the train tracks at top speed, Blitz hot on her heels.

Ashe soon realized that this may have been a bad idea. While their top speeds were more or less the same, she was losing ground to the rhinoceroid by weaving around all the mavericks in her way, while Blitz simply crashed through them without even slowing down.

"Ashe, he's catching up!" Model A yelled.

"Well, if he squishes me flat, at least we can say he took down a lot of mavericks to do it," Ashe remarked, mostly ignoring her biometal's panic, as always. Model A, of course, completely missed the humor, and continued to freak out.

She got a lucky break and gained some ground when the ground dipped into a large rut, forming a slight half-pipe. Ashe shot down one side and back up the other, rocketing into the air with a flip and sailing over several clumps of mavericks. They all stopped to fire at her but were quickly obliterated when Blitz crashed through them a few moments later.

Looking for obstacles, Ashe veered slightly to the left so that she was headed straight for a Crushpactor.

_Okay, let's see if I can handle this..._

She summoned Urgoyle just before she reached the giant mechaniloid, placing him in just the right place that she could jump up and, at the height of her jump, have Urgoyle jump up below her and give her a swift kick, sending her soaring even higher, like a soccer ball - just high enough to clear the Crushpactor.

"Woohoo!" Ashe yelled in triumph as she rained spiked balls on the mavericks waiting on the other side, clearing herself a landing space. She winced a bit as she landed on the sore spot where she'd kicked herself, but didn't let it slow her down as she kept going at top speed. Blitz crashed into the Crushpactor shortly afterward. The mechaniloid went flying off to the side, knocking out a not-insignificant number of mavericks and other mechaniloids, while Blitz was barely phased, slowing down slightly, and only for a moment, before continuing to barrel mindlessly across the battlefield after her, taking out anything in his way.

"This guy's unstoppable!" Model A yelled. "He just knocked that Crushpactor out like it was made of paper!"

"That's the plan!" Ashe grinned as she dodged, leapt, and wove her way through the chaos of battle. In several places she came close to the Guardian line of advance, with Blitz destroying large swaths of mavericks behind her, giving the Guardians she passed a welcome respite.

Ashe sped up a small hill and shot into the air, sailing over a few more mavericks and giving her her first view of the train. She could see Vent's train on her left, speeding towards one massive engine car on the right. "Time?" she asked her biometal, landing with a thud.

"Forty-eight seconds! Ashe, we're not going to-"

"Yes we are! Now start yelling something insulting to keep the moron's attention!" Blitz crashed over the top of the hill moments after her, crunching an entire line of Galleons under his massive bulk, but Ashe didn't have time to think about that. She sped as fast as she could towards the spot where she thought the two trains would meet on the tracks, Model A spouting degrading phrases and insults over her shoulder, all followed by the monstrous crashing sound of Blitz charging down on her.

* * *

The farther the train went down the tracks, the more mavericks managed to get on board. Vent and his mixed squad of Hunters and Guardians had their hands full fending them off and keeping the train going - if it stopped they'd be overwhelmed for sure. Several maverick squads had set up gun emplacements at the side of the tracks - Vent spent most of his time taking them down before the train reached them, while occasionally using Model P's shuriken to slice apart anything that got on board.

Time was running out though. He could see the maverick train car heading towards them. Model X did some calculations and told him they had less than thirty seconds before impact. The train was also headed between two small cliffs - if they were going to jump out, they needed to do it now. "Ashe, where are you?" he yelled into his communicator, trying to keep the worry out of his voice, though it was quickly becoming panic. He waited a few more seconds and fired a couple more shots, and just when he was about to order his unit to jump, he got a reply.

"Don't worry, I got you! Watch this!"

Vent looked ahead at the maverick train, which was just reaching the other side of the cliffs. The rocky terrain blocked his view of the land beside the tracks, so he didn't see Ashe approaching until she did a jumping backflip off a maverick and sailed across the tracks, pausing breifly to look down the rails at him and wave happily. Nor did he see the massive pseudoroid barreling after her.

Fortunately for them both, Blitz was a _very_ stupid pseudoroid.

So intensely focused on smashing Ashe and her annoying, insult-spewing biometal into paste, the Rhinoceroid was blind to everything else. He didn't notice the train tracks, nor did he notice the train until it passed by only inches in front of his nose, at which point it was too late for him to do anything about it.

The Rhinoceroid collided with the middle of the maverick engine car at full speed. With the screaming sound of ripping metal the train was lifted clear off the tracks and thrown sideways into the cliff wall, the combined remains of vehicle and pseudoroid smashing to a halt in a mess of dust, rock, and scrap metal just to the side of the tracks.

Two seconds later, Vent's train cruised down the now-empty tracks, still heading towards its destination. He stared back at the rising dust cloud for a few seconds before his mind fully absorbed what had just happened. "Ashe!" he practically screamed into his communicator, watching the dust dwindle into the distance. "ASHE!"

He received a bit of garbled static, then, "_Hell YES! Did you see that? How awesome am I? _THIS _awesome!"_

Vent practically collapsed as he heaved a huge sigh of relief. "You're crazy, you know that?"

"_Oh come on, this isn't nearly the craziest thing I've ever done."_

Vent was too relieved to say anything else, and before he could, Aile came back over the communicator. "_Nice going Ashe! Not sure how you did it, but we all owe you one_."

"_Yeah, you're really racking up the bill, here. You might break the bank on me if you keep this up."_

_ "Can I just give you my brother instead?"_

_ "Definitely!"_

"Hey!" Vent tried to protest being traded like a commodity, but the girls ignored him.

"_Okay, enough joking, keep moving. Ashe, can you still make it to Hunter Base on time?_"

"_Definitely, just let me-whoa! You're not dead?"_ There was a pause before she continued. "_Guys, I've got a little bit of cleanup to do here, but I'll be at the Base on time, I promise._"

"_All right. Good luck Vent. I'll be seeing you shortly._"

"Uh...right," was all Vent managed to say before Aile terminated her transmission. _That was strange, Aile doesn't usually talk all business like that. And 'seeing you shortly'? That seems a little square for her._ "Did Aile seem...different to you, somehow?" He asked his biometals.

"I'm sure it's simply the stress," Model X replied, while Model P remained silent.

"I guess." Whatever it was, he didn't have time to think about it as he saw the outskirts of Hunter Base come into view.

It was time for the next phase of the battle to begin.

* * *

Ashe couldn't believe it.

"I can't believe he's not dead," Model A echoed her thought.

"WEAK...PATHETIC...HUMAN!" Blitz the Rhinoceroid hollared again as he pulled himself out of the pile of train scrap and rock. From her vantage point ont op of the cliff, Ashe could see he'd taken quite a bit of damage from her stunt, but he seemed to be shrugging it off rather well, considering what he'd just been through. "YOUR TRICKS...ARE NO MATCH...FOR THE...MIGHTY BLITZ!"

"All right, Mr. Blitz, I've had my fun, and you're starting to get really annoying."

"WORTHLESS...SCUM!" Blitz finally heaved himself free from the debris pile and caught his breath. "I WILL TEACH YOU WHO THE REAL MASTERS OF THIS WORLD ARE, PUNY HUMAN!"

"Again with the 'puny human' crap. Look, if you'd rather fight another pseudoroid than a human, that's fine by me."

"YOU ARE NOT A-" Blitaz began, then stopped when Ashe A-Trans'ed into Bifrost. "WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU?"

"I'm pissed off, and I just put on my Rhino-stomping boots!" Ashe growled in Bifrost's low, rumbling voice, then jumped off the cliff. "Bring it on, horn-boy!"

* * *

**Author's Note**

Hey look, it's alive! Again!

Yes, I'm still here. I predicted life getting crazy after I posted part 24, which is why I posted it when I did, and I was right. There's a few more details in my profile, but basically, don't expect faster updates. I only have so much time these days. :\

Also sorry for not responding to PMs. I get email notifications so trust me when I say I see them, I just don't respond to most of them.

I know this one seems short, but trust me, it was going to be shorter. That entire scene with Vent was written, then I decided I didn't like it, so I cut the whole thing, but then when I wrote all the Ashe stuff I saw ho incredibly short everything was, so I put the Vent scene back in. I didn't want to come back from a year's hiatus with a 3000-word chapter.

Bullet Drive is the music from the Legion level in ZXA, the one where you fight Siarnaq and jump across the rooftops. I love this song. I keep thinking the song is called "Bullet Train" so I thought it would fit this chapter nicely.

This is my least favorite chapter of the story so far. It was incredibly not-fun to write it, and nothing really interesting happened, so I was just like...blah. If you don't like this one very much or find it boring, I agree with you.

Don't expect to see Ashe actually fighting Blitz. He's a moron so the fight is incredibly one-sided. I thought about writing it but was like meh, Ashe is going to kick his butt, why bother? Also, note that now I've written a fire (Ninetales), neutral (Black Widow), and electric-themed pseudoroid. Only one more to go! But who's going to fight it...? ;)

For the record, I have no idea where I got the phrase "blasting their jimmies" from. It sounds vaguely dirty and I'm not really sure why. It seems like something that guy would say though.

That's all for now. Thanks to all you crazy people who are _still_ favoriting this fic, and to all the people poking me asking me to update. I'd really like to get more stuff out there too, since the finale at the Legion Tower is what I've been looking forward to writing most since the Omega fight, but I just don't have the time I used to. :\

'Til next time.


	29. Part 26: Wonder Panorama

Part 26: Wonder Panorama

The Guardian train cruised into Hunter Base unopposed. It maintained top speed all the way to the train station, where it promptly detonated in a massive fireball of destruction, causing as much of a diversion as possible for Vent's mixed Guardian/Hunter squad as they jumped out just before the impact. Guided by the Hunters, the group went straight from the train station to the transerver, where they quickly set up a base of operations and established a link to the Guardian Base. Moments after the train impact, the Guardians had established a foothold behind enemy lines, turning the tides on the maverick forces of Legion as they were suddenly engaged on two fronts. As more and more Guardian and Hunter troops poured out from the transerver - troops that had been held back for precisely this purpose - they pushed towards the enemy's exposed back, while also establishing a bulwark against any additional forces attempting to leave Legion. Meanwhile, the main Guardian forces quickly gained ground on the beleaguered mavericks, spearheaded by Zero Omega, who tore through anything that got in his way, reducing hundreds of mavericks and mechaniloids to wreckage in mere minutes.

Within the space of ten minutes, the Guardians went from defending against an overwhelming enemy to launching a major offensive into enemy territory.

The first phase of the plan had worked perfectly.

* * *

Model L was the one making Aile's face smile, but the Chosen One felt it too. The red dots on the map were rapidly winking out of existence, while the blue ones continued to take up organized, fortified positions around the Hunter Camp. Soon the main assault forces would break through the maverick army and meet up in the Camp, where they would all make their final push together.

"That worked out even better than I thought it would," Model L remarked casually. "Remind me to compliment Zero on his plan later."

_No kidding. That bit with the train was pretty tense, but now we're totally kicking ass!_

_You know, it feels nice to win, on occasion. I lost to Zero so many times that I'd almost forgotten what it felt like._

Fleuve interrupted their discussion with a status report. "Over half of the maverick forces have been eliminated, and most of our forces are only taking minimal casualties. It's like the mavericks just...stopped trying."

"That's because they're mass-produced and poorly programmed," Model L replied. "They don't know how to handle this situation, and it doesn't seem like there's anyone left out there to command them, so they're not functioning as well as they were. In essence, they're panicking."

_Never thought I'd use psychological warfare against an army of machines,_ Aile thought offhandedly. Model L mentally smirked but refrained from commenting.

"Well, I think we've done all we can from here." Model L turned to Fleuve. "I'll leave the rest of the cleanup and command of the _Faith_ to you. We're heading down to Hunter Camp with the rest of the troops. We'll command the offensive into Legion City from there."

Fleuve nodded. "We'll take care of it. Good luck, and keep in touch."

Model L nodded, then left the room. Shortly afterward, she returned control of Aile's body to her.

"Only want to be in control for the interesting parts?" Aile quipped, though she really didn't mind. It was still slightly unnerving to feel someone else moving her body around - now she knew how Prairie must have felt while merged with Zero.

"Hah, no. I actually want to continue work on my new Biomerge modifications. I have essentially completed the process, but I think I can make it more efficient and give you a higher power output, and maybe some new abilities. I'd like you to have every advantage possible for whatever comes next." Despite not saying it exactly, they both knew what she meant.

_I'm coming for you, Aeolus._

* * *

Vent had just finished sweeping the rest of Hunter Camp for mavericks and was returning to the transerver base when he ran across Aile ordering troops around, looking like she'd been doing it all her life. Even the scattered hunters had no trouble accepting her orders, despite most of them having never met her before. It was a side of his sister he hadn't known existed, but he wasn't surprised to find.

But there were some parts of her that were still the same. "Vent!" She yelled as she ran at him, tackling him so hard they almost ended up a in a pile on the ground. "I'm so glad you're safe! You had me worried there for a moment."

"Sorry," he replied, a hint of sheepishness in his voice. "I would have been fine, but the operation as a whole definitely would have been a disaster without Ashe there to back me up." He glanced around briefly. "Speaking of which, where is she? I've been too busy cleaning up the base to check in on much of anything."

Aile opened her mouth to reply when a Guardian up on a sentry tower shouted a warning. "Incoming pseudoroid! It's riding down the tracks at high speed...looks like some kind of rhinoceros!"

"Damn!" Aile reflexively started issuing orders over her communicator as her trident appeared in her hand. "All units, prepare for pseudoroid attack! Slow it down but don't engage, let Vent and I handle it!"

"_Relax Aile, it's just me,_" Ashe's voice said over the communicator.

"Ashe!" Aile let out an exasperated sigh, mixed with a bit of relief. "All units, hold your fire and let the 'pseudoroid' through. Ashe, what are you doing, scaring us like that?"

"_Oh come on, you didn't _actually_ think that pseudoroid could beat me? The guy was an idiot! I'm just using his form because it's actually got a pretty sweet top speed, especially when grinding these tracks."_

"Good to know. How long until you arrive?"

_ "Right...about..."_

They could all hear Ashe as she screeched along the rails, jumping off just before they ended in a twisted mess caused by Vent's train. There was a flash in midair as she A-Trans'ed back into her own body, then landed neatly beside them with a flip.

"...Now."

"Showoff..." Vent muttered with a smile.

"What can I say? I like to strut my stuff," Ashe replied with a mischievous wink.

"Think I'm gonna vomit," Aile replied, shaking her head. "All right, are you two ready to move? Zero's going to be here in a matter of minutes, and you need as much of a head start as you can get."

"Agreed. Come on Ashe, you can tell everyone how awesome you were _after_ we save all their lives," Vent said, dragging her off by the hand.

"Aw, but I want to do it _now_..." Ashe pretended to whine, but went along willingly. "I guess I'll just have to do even more awesome things between here and Legion HQ."

"You do that," Aile replied, "just be careful, both of you. I'll see you there. And take care of my stupid brother!"

"Did it ever occur to either of you that I can take care of myself?" Vent asked rhetorically.

"No," both girls answered anyway.

As the other two Chosen Ones ran off, Fleuve contacted her communicator. "_Aile, I'm reading pseudoroid activity in the lake near Hunter Camp. I think it's the one that was in charge of the mavericks there before we took over. One of the clean-up squads has it pinned down but they can't get near the lake. Can you handle it?"_

"Of course!" Aile replied. She _was_ the Model L Chosen One, after all – her biometal worked best underwater. "Tell the squad to keep it there, I'll deal with it." She took off towards the lake, which she remembered was on the east side of the camp.

"_All right. I've informed Zero as well. If you aren't finished by the time he gets there he'll come assist you._"

"That won't be necessary," she replied with a confident grin. "That pseudoroid is never going to know what hit it."

* * *

Ashe and Vent headed towards the destroyed train station to meet up with the Guardian squad stationed there. Vent's runaway train had reduced a large portion of it to rubble, but there were still several fully-functional trains nearby that a resourceful person could get running again. There was also nothing stopping reinforcements from arriving by train, and the Guardians were there to make sure they had some warning in that event.

Luckily enough, that hadn't been a problem.

As they arrived at the wrecked trainyard, Vent and Ashe asked for a report from the squad commander that came to greet them.

"Nothing happening out here, sir," the skinny brown-haired reploid reported. "You're clear to move out."

"Sweet!" Ashe exclaimed. "Hopefully it stays that way all the way to Legion."

"Maybe, but I think that's wishful thinking," Model X replied.

"Oh? Why's that?" Vent asked.

"You both saw what the Maverick Virus did to those people in Legion while we escaped. But we haven't seen a single infected civilian on the battlefield, only mechaniloids."

"So, you're saying that..." Ashe started, but Vent finished, "...Legion is currently the home to a large population of crazy, bloodthirsty, mindless maverick-zombies?"

"Basically, yes. It is doubtful that they would be coordinated enough to travel with the mechaniloids, so it would make sense to leave them behind in Legion. They also serve as a rather formidable defense force."

"A defense force that most of the Guardians won't want to shoot." Vent grimaced.

"Well then, at least we won't have to worry about them attacking here any time soon," Ashe replied, trying to look on the bright side of an all-around bad situation. "Why don't you guys leave a couple behind just in case and go join up with the main force?" The squad commander nodded and ran off to do just that.

"So, you know this idea is crazy, right?" Vent said, walking towards a nearby train.

"Yeah, but I still don't think it's the craziest thing I've ever done," was Ashe's nonchalant response. "In fact, considering the past few days, this seems pretty tame. Besides, it's not like we came up with the idea."

"No, but we agreed to it. And you have to admit, Zero's plan is working pretty well so far."

"I think most people agreed to it because they couldn't think of anything better," Model X pointed out.

"Maybe. Personally, I think it suits my style, so I'm all for it," Ashe replied with a shrug.

"Not surprised," Vent chuckled as he climbed into the engine car. He hooked up Model X and Model P to the train's security, and they blew past it in seconds. Vent allowed himself a satisfied smile as the train roared to life. "All right. Hopefully this train ride goes a bit smoother than the last one."

"I certainly hope so," Ashe replied. "I'm gonna take a load off. Keep watch for me, man-slave, while I take a nap." She hopped into the captain's chair, closed her eyes, and did exactly that.

Vent shook his head, but said nothing as Model X started the train's engine and headed for Legion.

* * *

After briefly checking in with the Guardians surrounding the lake, Aile leapt down into the icy waters. _Must be an ice pseudoroid. That means it's good in water – makes sense that it would retreat into the lake, then._ Model L's powers kept her from feeling the sub-zero temperature of the water and cleared her vision – the only way she could tell she was actually under water was that she could float. She activated her thrusters and hovered in place for a moment.

_You know, it occurs to me that I've never actually used you underwater before,_ Aile mentally remarked to her biometal. _Is there anything I should know?_

_Not particularly,_ Model L replied. _It's mostly the same as when you used me with Model X, though the power increases you've received from the Biomerge apply here as well. Ice dragons and such should be easy to summon, and you've got an increased thrust capacity. Try not to shoot yourself into the floor._

_ Come on, give me more credit than that._

_ I was just teasing. Anyway, despite this being my native environment, be careful. The lake is being chilled naturally, so whatever this pseudoroid is, he's got a respectable amount of power if he can nearly freeze an entire lake. I can insulate you from it but don't expect any help – a regular reploid would freeze to death in minutes._

_ What about Zero?_ Without the protection of Model L, would the legendary reploid be a match for such freezing temperatures?

_Zero is built to withstand much colder temperatures than this. Beside, if nothing else, he could probably just blow up the lake._

Once again, Aile was amazed not only by the amount of power Zero had, but by how nonchalantly Model L talked about it.

She set her thrusters to low output and sank slowly towards the bottom of the couldn't see anything suspicious, just some plants and metal wreckage that lined the lakebed. Model L's scanner didn't seem to be picking anything up either.

_Any ideas? It can't be _that_ hard to find a pseudoroid..._

_ The range of my scanner is rather limited, so keep looking. Pseudoroids aren't known for being patient, I'm sure it'll-_

"Well what have we here?"

Aile couldn't see whoever had spoken, but the shifting of water currents told her that there was _something_ rushing at her from below. She shot herself sideways just in time to avoid _something_ as it shot through the spot she'd just occupied. She spun around to see what it was, but instead got hit full-on by the _something_ she thought she'd dodged. She shot through the water like a baseball, and had barely stopped and steadied herself before she saw a double row of gnashing teeth flying straight at her.

Since the dodging tactic hadn't worked, Aile tried going on the offensive. She made an overhand swing with her trident, but the teeth veered down sharply just in time to dodge it at the same time she got clubbed in the side again. This time she slammed into the bottom of the lake before she could stop herself.

Aile winced as she pulled herself off the lakebed. "Model L, what is it? Half the time I can't even see it, and it seems like it's everywhere!"

"I take offense to that," the voice said again, sounding annoyed, and coming from directly above her. She jetted sideways right before the pile of teeth slammed into where she'd been standing. She kept her wits about her and was ready to dodge a follow-up, but this time there was nothing except a rising pool of mud and dirt where the pseudoroid had slammed into the lakebed. "I am not an 'it'."

"Well if you're not going to introduce yourself, I have no choice but to be rude," Aile shot back, stalling for time. _Model L, can you tell what this guy is?_

_I'm getting a lot of electrical interference from him, but I think he's_-

"I am Coldeel the Eelroid, and you are trespassing in my new domain!"

_-an ice-element eel pseudoroid._

As the mud cloud settled, the first thing to emerge was a large set of teeth, frozen into what seemed like a permanent grin. They were attached to the front of a long, segmented body, covered with thick armor plating. Small arms and legs were pressed to the sides at a few points along the length of the body. They looked awkward and out of place.

"You mean the Hunter Base?" Aile continued to stall. _If he's ice-element, where's the interference coming from?_

_ I don't know, I'm working on it._

"Yes! Master Thomas said it would be mine to rule as I pleased! And everything was going fine until someone crashed a _train_ into it! A train that started spilling Hunters everywhere!"

Aile smirked. "Yeah, sometimes my brother can be a real pain."

"He's only lucky that I'm not so great out of the water, otherwise I would have...gah! I shouldn't have told you that! Oh well, you're in my domain now, and I'm not letting you go!"

Aile quickly discovered that the reason she'd been having so much trouble dodging was that Coldeel could manipulate his long, segmented body very precisely, allowing him to rush at her for a biting attack while simultaneously whipping his body around for a body slam. Aile was hard-pressed to dodge while also unleashing a few Ice Dragons and Ice Needles of her own. Unfortunately, that same dexterity allowed Coldeel's body to easily slide out of the way of any attack she sent at him.

_This isn't going well,_ Aile remarked to her biometal as she spun sideways to avoid another tail swipe, then fired an Ice Dragon forward at Coldeel's face as he shot forward for a bite, causing him to veer harmlessly away. _Any ideas?_

_I'm working on it, just hold him off for a bit longer, _Model L said, sounding preoccupied. _And stop trying to hit him with ice attacks, I don't think they're going to work._

_I hate to be the one to tell you, but ice attacks are pretty much all we've got!_

_Then hit him with the trident!_

Aile shot upward to avoid a tail sweep, then brought her trident around to meet the follow-up bite. She almost managed to get Coldeel to bite down on the blade, but he veered away at the last moment, allowing her to take a quick swipe at his back instead as he shot downward. His plating was pretty thick, but she thought she may have done some damage. Unfortunately, judging from the lack of reaction from Coldeel, it wasn't much.

_His armor is too thick for a slash to penetrate. I'll have to try and get a stab in, see if I can hit anything important..._unfortunately she had no idea where the "important" parts of an eel were.

After a few more narrow misses – and a couple of painful hits – Aile realized she wasn't going to get the opportunity she needed. Coldeel was very careful with his attacks, always attacking from awkward angles and prioritizing defense, retreating from any counterattack she tried to mount rather than take a chance.

As her feet rested on the muddy lake bed after evading Coldeel's latest attack, Aile readied herself for the next, but it never came. She looked around for her opponent, but could only see clouds of muck stirred up by their battle. Model L's scanner came up blank as well.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were stalling for time." Coldeel's voice seemed to be coming from everywhere.

"I could say the same about you," Aile replied. "Why don't you just come straight out and face me?"

"I suppose I could...I just thought I would have a little fun first. But you're right – whatever it is you're stalling for, it's best that I kill you before you have time to finish."

A sudden jolt of pain shot through her body. She felt Model L's body armor absorb most of the jolt, but it still hurt. Worse, she had no idea where it came from. It was followed shortly afterward by a few more. Though she was now prepared for it, the quick blasts of pain were enough to take her breath away.

_Model L, what's happening?_ Another burst of pain, this time feeling like it came from the back of her skull.

_It's electricity,_ Model L explained, still sounding distracted. _It's passing through the water incredibly fast, and so erratic that I can't trace the source. Unfortunately you're the most conducive material down here, so it's all being drawn to you. I can insulate you from electricity somewhat, but it's too much for me to handle all at once. Just hang on a little longer, I'm almost finished._

"Hmm...that doesn't seem to be working as well as I thought it would..." Coldeel's voice said from somewhere in the dirt cloud. "Maybe your body is built in a similar manner to mine? That would explain a few things. Well, no matter, I'll just increase the voltage."

Aile fell to her knees with a cry of pain as a huge blast of electricity shot through her body. She could tell Model L was doing her best to absorb it, but the power Coldeel was sending into her was overwhelming. _I need to get out of here. He's less effective out of the water, I just need to get out until Model L is finished..._

She shot off the ground and headed for the surface, but she didn't get far before Coldeel rose out of the dust cloud to chase her. She dodged his first swipe as his teeth shot past, changing direction only slightly, but had to stop and zigzag downward to dodge his next rush. As soon as he was past she shot upward again as fast as she could, but then she felt the sharp pain of an electrical blast shoot through her. She faltered only slightly, but it was enough for the eelroid to get the jump on her – he came at her from a blind spot, ramming head-first into her side. She spun out of control, no longer sure which way was up, and before she could right herself she felt his long, armor-plated body close in around her, squeezing her arms tight against her body. Before she could struggle to free herself he wound his body around her tightly, wrapping her up in his coils.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go that easily," Coldeel said, a mocking hurt in his voice. "You see, I don't like sharing, so I prefer to keep my toys to myself until I'm finished with them."

_Aile, I'm finished, but I have some bad news._

_I don't really need any more of that right now_, Aile replied as she fought to free her arms, but failed.

_I've finished our Biomerge, but we're going to have to re-Megamerge to start it._

_If you hadn't noticed, that doesn't really do me much good at the moment!_ She managed to free one of her arms, but felt the pressure on her body increase. It was getting hard to breathe...

_Well, when I started, you weren't being crushed. I fail to see how that's my fault. You shouldn't have let him get you into this situation._

_Lecture later, help now!_ She's almost worked her second arm free when Coldeel chuckled.

"Oh, there's nothing I like better than to see prey struggling to live, not knowing that they had no hope of winning all along."

Aile's body lit up in a blaze of pain as electricity coursed through her, far more than anything Coldeel had shot at her before. She bit back a scream – she didn't want to give him that satisfaction. Her arms went slack, losing all of the gains she'd made against the mechaniloid's coils, which quickly wrapped themselves back around her, crushing her completely.

After what seemed like years the shock finally subsided, but Aile's mind was still reeling from the pain. She could barely remember what was going on, and couldn't form a coherent thought of what to do next...

Until she felt Coldeel's coils crushing her chest again. She pushed back against them with her one trapped arm, and managed to get enough space to get one more gasp of air into her lungs before they coiled tightly again, suffocating her.

"It's no use, you're mine now. No matter how hard you struggle, I'm not going to let go."

_Model L, help me!_ Aile cried frantically in her mind, panicking.

_Don't worry Aile, I've got a plan._

_ I can't breathe, I can't-_

_ Trust me, Aile. I'll handle this._

"I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed. I thought the Model L Mega Man would prove to be a greater challenge when fought underwater. Oh well. The old always yields to the new. Good bye."

Black started closing in on the edges of her vision as another massive shock pulsed through her body. The last comforting thought she had before she blacked out was, _at least I didn't scream._

* * *

Coldeel kept the voltage up for a few seconds after he felt the girl go limp, just to be sure she wasn't faking it, but figured she'd had enough when her Megamerge ended in a flash of light. He loosed his coils and let her little humanoid body float up through the water, coming up level with his eyes. She looked so frail and harmless, just floating there.

"Hmph. Pathetic." He opened his mouth, his rows of razor-sharp teeth ready to cleave her little body in two, when her eyes shot open, their blue irises staring directly at him. He paused, confused, for just a second – but just long enough for her to mutter one word, obscured by the water, but still audible to his ears.

"Megamerge."

And his world became a blast of blue-white light.

* * *

"Sir, there's a strange energy reading coming from the lake," Gardenia reported.

"Define 'strange'," Fleuve replied.

"Well, it sort of resembles Model L, but there's something...something more." Fleuve gave her a questioning look. "I know, I know, it doesn't make sense, but that's the best way I can explain it. It's similar to how Model L looks on the scanner, but there's other readings mixed in too, on more wavelengths than I've ever seen before at once."

Understanding that was the best he was going to get, Fleuve nodded. "Call Aile, make sure she's all right. It might have something to do with that pseudoroid."

"I'm trying sir, but I can't connect," Tulip answered.

"What do you mean, you can't connect?" A hint of fear trickled into his voice. "Do you mean...?"

"No, it's not that. If she were dead I would still be able to raise her communicator. It's like her communicator isn't even there. It's like Aile doesn't even exist anymore."

Fleuve stood quietly for a moment, then said, "Inform Zero of the situation. I want to know exactly what happened. And...tell him to hurry."

* * *

Coldeel fought to get his body under control as a massive blast of air and water blew him backward through the lake. The blast of light had only lasted a second, but as he'd been staring right at it, his eyes took a few moments to readjust to the murky darkness of the water. Once he could see again, he saw a completely different person floating gently in the water in front of him than either the Mega Man he'd been fighting, or the human girl who'd floated there lifelessly a moment before.

Thin armor had reappeared over her entire frame, covering her from neck to foot, like a bodysuit. It seemed to flow over the curves of her body like water, and glistened in the watery light like scales. It was impossible to say what shade it was, as it seemed to change from one moment to the next. The surface appeared to ripple as water flowed across it, the edges blurring, but when he blinked it was solid again. It made her figure hard to follow in the shifting light of the water.

Her hands were covered in a white material, likely more pliable than the rest of her armor, so she would be able to wield her trident more efficiently. Her boots were also white, though slightly bulkier, as though they had extra protection in them, and with a white ring running around her leg just above the ankle. They were flat-bottomed, but with curious openings near the heels.

Her helmet was relatively unchanged, though it was now made from the same eye-bending material as the rest of her armor. Two fins protruded from either side to protect her ears, resembling a strange mix between a wave and a fin, as well as a white crest along the forehead with a deep blue gem in the middle. There was a thin sheet of material coming out from under the back of the helmet, but he couldn't tell what it was. Occasionally it resembled hair parting and waving in the current, but most of the time it looked like one solid piece of material with the texture of a solid metal plate. If pressed, he would have said with was both multiple pieces and one solid piece, breaking apart and reforming constantly.

The backs of her legs had two small protrusions each, one on her calf, and one on her shin. They had openings on the ends, and were probably used for propulsion. There were two more on her back, on the tops of her shoulder blades.

The only part of her that hadn't changed at all were her cold, ice-blue eyes, and they were staring directly at him.

Coldeel snorted contemptuously. "Well, that was impressive. But do you really think you can defeat me just because you got some new armor? You're still the same, pathetic Mega Man."

"Am I?" the woman answered. "I think you'll find you're mistaken."

Coldeel raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then what, pray tell, are you?"

The woman smiled coolly. "I am Fairy Commander Leviathan, Siren General of Neo Arcadia, and former Blue Lord of the Meikai Army.

"And I believe you just called me old."

* * *

Nothing was working. Even at full power, his electrical attacks that had previously yielded excellent results now produced no reaction whatsoever when they struck her – provided they did strike her. More often than not his attacks passed right through her, like she wasn't even there. He tried to grapple with her, but she now had some trick where she disappeared just before he could reach her, only to reappear behind him, but instead of attacking, she just let out a mocking laugh. He tried to use the dirt from the lake bed to disguise his movements, but she must have been able to track him somehow, because he still couldn't manage to surprise her.

And through the whole thing, there was the smile. It was equal parts mocking and condescending, and completely infuriating. She was playing with him, and she wanted him to know it. The worst part was, there was nothing he could do about it.

"How did she suddenly get so damn strong," he grumbled to himself. "It's not fair!"

"No, it's not," the woman named Fairy Leviathan replied, though he hadn't intended her to hear him. The voice was behind him again, so he spun to meet it. She still floated there calmly, her arms crossed, no weapon drawn, and that insufferable smirk still plastered across her face. "Life so infrequently is.

"However, that is currently your problem. Mine is that I'm needed elsewhere, and you have taken up far too much of my time. It's time to say goodbye."

There was no bravado in her voice as she spoke – it was just a simple truth. Coldeel had no doubt she could follow through on her threat, as he was clearly overmatched by her new form. He saw only one choice available to him.

The eelroid ran.

One of his biggest advantages was his speed, His armor and body were designed to allow for minimal water resistance as he swam, making him incredibly fast in water. Much like he'd previously used his speed to attack, he now used it to make a very hasty retreat. He kicked up as much silt from the lake as possible to cover his tracks, and devoted all his electrical energy into masking himself from her tracking abilities. He'd been so much faster than her before, even with her new powers there was no way she would be able to keep up with him now...

There was a rush of water around him, followed by a sickening _crunch_ as Coldeel swam face-first into something hard. He opened his eyes again just in time to see massive coils of ice, thicker than his entire body, coalesce all around him and wrap him tightly, much the same way he'd done to Aile. He tried to squirm out of their stranglehold, but the coils constricted even tighter, nearly crushing his body into a gooey pulp with a single push. His armor plating, build to withstand the water pressure of deep-sea diving, groaned as it buckled under the strength of the constricting ice.

The silt in front of him parted mysteriously for a moment, and Leviathan appeared with a heavy sigh, shaking her head. "You silly thing. You really thought you could run away from the Queen of the Ocean?" Her lips pouted, but they couldn't hide the malicious glint in her eyes. "Now you've wasted enough of my time that I don't even have time to give you the long, painful death you deserve. I'll just have to settle for quick and terrifying."

And, much to Coldeel's surprise, she swam away.

The eelroid blinked in confusion as she disappeared back into the silt, which quickly billowed up to cover everything again. "You're just going to leave me here?" He exclaimed.

"Oh, no," came her reply. Her voice was already a good distance away. "I'll leave your fate to Jormungandr. You see, he just woke up and I'm afraid he's rather hungry."

"To what...?" Coldeel's question was answered by a pair of glowing eyes that suddenly appeared in the swirling mud and rock. He was just barely able to make out a gigantic mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, crafted entirely of ice, before it bit down on him, punching through his armor like butter.

* * *

Just as Zero arrived at the lakeshore he felt a massive shudder through the ground, followed moments later by a huge explosion shooting water up from the lake, which fell back down as a light drizzle and a light mist. He readied his sword at his side and prepared to jump in, then relaxed when he saw the lone figure emerging from the lake in front of him. Even if she looked different, he knew immediately who it was. And by the way she carried herself, with complete and utter confidence and seeming disdain for everything around her, it definitely wasn't Aile.

He waited patiently while Leviathan walked up to meet him, and was startled when her armor started to change in a series of white flashes. The helmet disappeared, while the piece of material that seemed to be coming out of it parted into strands of glossy blue hair that fell down to the middle of her back. The two sets of dash turbines on her legs were the next to go, followed by the two on her back. She was now clad in only her bodysuit, which hugged her curves – all of them – quite favorably. It appeared to be black, but every time sunlight touched her it reflected back as a deep ocean blue. The final change finished just as she reached him – the heels of her boots smoothly rose up two inches, putting her eyes on level with his chin. Despite having just walked up the muddy lakeshore, they were also immaculately clean.

Leviathan stopped a step away from him, then put one hand on her hip as she flicked her newfound hair back with the other. "Well?" She asked, a hint of teasing in her voice. "What do you think?"

Zero kept his expression neutral, and his eyes on her face. The intensity of her ice-blue eyes sent a chill down his spine. "The bit with the heels was some pretty impressive balance, but I don't see how any of the rest is practical for battle."

She chuckled. "Oh, Zero. Always so clueless. This isn't for battle. This is for you."

Then she took one step forward and kissed him full on the lips. Zero barely had time to register it was happening before she pulled back, looked him in the eyes, and sighed heavily.

"The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest," she said cryptically.

Armor reappeared all over her body in a white flash, though it was different from what she had been wearing when she emerged from the water. Zero guessed that she now had a separate set of equipment when she fought underwater versus when she fought on land. Her underwater set had looked like it allowed for increased maneuverability, while this set was clearly made to provide maximum protection.

First to appear was her helmet, which was relatively unchanged. Her hair, however, morphed into something else entirely. While its thickness remained unchanged, it changed from its glossy blue to a more metallic mix of blue and white, with gray in between. The hairs looked more like very small, very thin pieces of metal rather than actual hair. When her head wasn't moving the strands were thick enough to form a solid sheet, protecting the back of her neck from anything but the most powerful plasma blasts and energy weapons from penetrating through. It wouldn't absorb a blunt-force attack, like from a club, but anything strong enough to hurt her through the "hair" and her helmet would probably take her head right off anyway, so it was a moot point.

Next were thick shoulder pads that went almost up to her chin, but stopped far enough back that they wouldn't block her peripheral vision. Chest armor appeared that extended from her neck all the way down to her elbows and waist, with some interlocking pieces around her joints and abdomen so she could still move freely. Separate pieces appeared on her forearms and extended into a gauntlet that covered halfway up the back of her hand, the whole thing much thicker than than the rest of her suit, but it left the rest of her hands with just their white, thinly plated gloves for protection. Zero judged that metal that thick would easily be able to catch and parry all but the strongest beam weapons.

The two dash thrusters reappeared on her shoulder blades, though slightly bigger than before, and with flaps extending out from the bottoms to direct the airflow, allowing her greater control while airborne, though Zero doubted they were powerful enough to allow for full flight – not while she was decked out in this much armor, anyway. Maybe it she were wearing her underwater gear...

The dash thrusters reappeared on the backs of her legs, along with yet more armor that wrapped all the way around her leg, with a special joint at the knee to allow her unrestricted mobility. A thin sheet of armor, similar to what her body suit was made of, appeared around her waist, attached to her chest armor. Starting out blue at the top and fading to white as it went down, it hung down almost to her ankles like a skirt, but left an open area down the front that allowed it to split open, keeping her legs unencumbered. Her boots bulked up around ankles, with a white ring around the top, and the telltale opening of a dash thruster appeared on the bottom...but the two-inch heels remained untouched.

The whole ensemble was colored in a variety of blues and whites, with the white mainly on joints and loose plates as well as on the tips of the helmet fins, while the sturdier armor on her limbs and chest were mainly blue.

"Is that better?" Leviathan asked sarcastically.

"Uh...yeah," was all Zero managed to stammer out, still not fully recovered from the kiss. He really hadn't been expecting that, and wasn't quite sure what the proper response would be. So he didn't have one.

"Hmph." Leviathan turned her eyes away and practically stalked past him, heading back toward the Guardian forces. Zero shivered slightly as a chill breeze swept in behind her. "I'm glad you approve."

Zero watched her walk off without a backward glance. _The first battle the God of Destruction has ever lost, _he thought sardonically to himself as he hurried to catch up with her and match her stride. He decided he was better off just ignoring the issue.

"So, what happened to Aile?" He asked,

"She passed out fighting the pseudoroid, so I'm in control for the time being," Leviathan replied coolly. "She'll wake soon. Let's get back to the group and get ready to move, we can't afford to be late."

"So, the Ice Queen cometh?" Zero said with a smirk.

"Indeed." A menacing grin spread across her face. "Place your bets; Hell is about to freeze over."

* * *

**Author's Note**

Woot fanservice! :D

This part was originally longer, but I cut a bunch of Ashe and Vent stuff just before posting. I decided I wanted to add some more meat to their scenes, and it started getting so long that it was detracting from Leviathan awesomeness. It also took place a short time after the Coldeel fight, so it felt weird time-hopping around between breaks. It just works out better this way. Luckily for you, this means part 27 is already about half-written, so maybe it wont' take me 11 months to finish it. :P It also contains a brief cameo that a lot of people should be happy to see... ;)

"Wonder Panorama" is from the first ice level in ZX. I love walking in the snow with this song going. It just _works_. I can't explain why. Anyway, the version on the soundtrack has this cool fake-vocal thing going that you either love or hate, and I love it, so it's one of my favorite songs.

Zero's not quite back to kicking butt yet, so you'll have to wait a bit longer to see the God of Destruction really get into the swing of things. I've got some really sweet stuff planned for him for the finale that you probably won't see coming. You'll also get a bit more explanation on how Leviathan's Biomerge abilities work once Aile wakes up, and you'll also get to see the more fancy moves she's got once she has something more challenging to kill.

Leviathan's new appearance took a lot of thought, which is partly why this chapter took a while to post. I changed it like four times. I was basically going for a cross between her Zero body, Aile's human form, Aile's Model L form, and Lenneth from Valkyrie Profile, but with more armor. She's supposed to look like a walking fortress on land. For her underwater version I was trying to make her as mobile as possible, and I wanted her to resemble a fish somewhat, but enough so much that she looked like an actual fish. It's mostly in the armor, which is supposed to resemble fish scales.

For those too lazy to look it up, Jormungandr is the serpent who circles the world in Norse mythology. Thor fishes him up and punches him at one point! He's supposed to kill Thor during Ragnarok. A lot of things in the Zero games are named after Norse mythology so I thought it fit nicely for a giant sea serpent made of ice.

Once again, thanks to all the people who keep visiting, reading, and reviewing. I'm not sure how people keep finding this fic when it hasn't been updated in a year and has been swallowed into the depths of the interwebs, but it's pretty cool regardless. :)

* * *

**Outtakes**

_Zero kept his expression neutral, and his eyes on her face. The intensity of her ice-blue eyes sent a chill down his spine. "The bit with the heels was some pretty impressive balance, but I don't see how any of the rest is practical for battle."_

_She chuckled. "Oh, Zero. Always so clueless. This isn't for battle. This is for you."_

_Then she took one step forward and kissed him full on the lips._

A few moments later, Zero pulled her body closer to his, then they both fell to the ground, their hands -**  
**

**Author**: CUT! Zero, Leviathan, what the hell do you think you're doing?! You're supposed to -

**Ashe**: You're on the internet, man. Rule 34.

**Author**: What?! NO! No no no no NO! It doesn't work like that! I forbid it!

**Vent**: Too late. You can't stop the internet. Besides, do you blame him? She's pretty hot in that new suit.

**Ashe**: *glares*

**Vent**: I mean...uh...gotta go! *retreats*

**Author**: GAH! Well...fine then! At least they won't see any here! End chapter!


	30. Part 27: Path to the Truth

Part 27: Path to the Truth

The hardest part of assaulting Legion Tower was physically getting the army there. Nobody wanted to risk a transfer, as it would involve going through a virus-infected transerver, and who knew what kind of results that would have. Moving the army by vehicle, however, would take time, and leave them open to attack in the meantime. In particular, they needed to end this battle quickly, as Fleuve was still worried that the virus would mutate and defeat his hastily-assembled antivirus program, thus eliminating one of their biggest advantages.

In contrast to the first part of Zero's plan, the second part called for a more stealthy approach. While it was his idea, it was largely Model P – and by extension, Ashe's Siarnaq A-Trans – that made it possible. Non-detection was the key part of the plan – the element of surprise is what had gotten given the Guardians and Hunters the win in the battle for Hunter Base, and they needed to keep it up if they wanted to win the battle for Legion City as well.

* * *

There was no one to greet the train as it pulled into the Legion station. What should have been a bustling platform full of people heading to work and deliveries being loaded was instead a ghost town, devoid of any sort of life – normal or maverick.

But just because no one was there didn't mean no one was watching.

Or so said Model P, moments before the train arrived. As the train doors opened, several security cameras turned their attention the platform. After all, it was an unscheduled arrival from a location that was currently classified as a warzone. In normal times, alarms would be blaring and security forces would be crawling all over the place with the entire building placed in lockdown. Now there wasn't even a single beep of alarm, just the cameras standing their silent vigil.

What was the point of protecting a city that was already dead?

Still, Ashe and Vent needed to infiltrate the city as quickly as possible, and that meant not being seen. Armed with Model P's knowledge of the city's security grid, and the city blueprints taken from the Legion database and backed up into Model X, they had been able to devise a route through the city that, if all went according to plan, would allow them to remain undetected, while also passing by their main objectives – the city transervers. Model P and Model X had both been given antivirus programs to install in the transervers and make them safe to use. They would then record the transfer address, and after vaccinating several transervers all over the city, would relay the addresses back to Hunter Base. Guardians and Hunters would then transfer into all districts of the city, attacking the enemy from within, and disrupting any defenses that had been established.

The whole plan hinged, of course, on Ashe and Vent's ability to infiltrate Legion City undetected. They would also have to operate under complete radio silence, and avoid any encounters with mavericks and infected townspeople – or Infected, as they were starting to be known. Leaving dead Infected bodies lying around might tip the enemy off, thus ruining the surprise. They needed it to seem like the entire Guardian army was still in Hunter Base, which would hopefully draw off more of Thomas's mavericks. Overall, it was a risky plan, but Zero had seemed confident that it would work, and that it was the best way to get the army into Legion City in a hurry.

And it started with leaping off a moving bullet train.

Just as the train was slowing down to enter the station, it slowed down enough that Ashe and Vent could jump off the roof of the last car and onto the roof of the station. From there it was a matter of patience and timing to make it down a wall and across the trainyard, crossing open areas when no cameras were watching, and diving from cover to cover as mechaniloids went about their daily tasks, unaware that their reploid and human masters had abandoned them. The pair Shadow Dashed through the perimeter fence without setting off any alarms, then split up and headed out into the city proper to look for suitable targets for their antivirus vaccine. They would meet up thirty minutes later at a specific point in Legion City, a short distance away from Legion Tower, to transmit the coordinates they had gathered. Then they would start the last phase of the plan – infiltrating Legion Tower itself.

* * *

A group of Infected stumbled down a hallway, grunting and groaning unintelligibly. as they mindlessly milled about. They stopped at one door to look inside, but apparently whatever had caught their attention inside wasn't enough that they felt like going to investigate – instead they continued on down the hall, passing through a shattered glass office door and turning a corner.

Ashe detached Siarnaq's clamps from her hands and feet, dropping down from the ceiling in the hallway the Infected had just passed through. She'd slipped in through a broken window in a nearby office, heading for the elevator, but had been interrupted by the shambling corpses-on-feet. She now resumed her path, prying open the powered-down elevator door with a kunai. The elevator itself was nowhere in sight, so Ashe attached a magnetic connector to the elevator rail and slid downward as fast as gravity would allow.

She emerged again at the basement level. After prying the door open again, she saw a sign on the wall giving directions. The bottom one, the one she was looking for, said "Receiving" and pointed left. Ashe took off quickly but quietly, still on the lookout for roaming groups of Infected.

With the power off the entire basement was engulfed in darkness, but Siarnaq's ability to operate in just such an environment turned that to her advantage. She quickly made her way to the receiving area and found what she was looking for – an entire row of transervers. Normally used for receiving couriers and cargo, they could now warp in a few hundred Guardian soldiers in a matter of minutes.

Ashe A-Trans'd back to Model A to administer the antivirus program to the transervers. She wasn't particularly worried about being caught outside of Siarnaq's stealth, but she kept her eyes and ears open anyway.

Which is why, halfway through clearing the transervers, she heard the almost inaudible sound of a reploid moving towards her. She quickly switched back to Siarnaq in a flash, then stealthily moved to the side of a nearby crate without making a sound. Whoever was coming, they would still expect her to be near the transerver, so she readied two kunai and waited.

It wasn't long before a gun appeared around the edge of the crate, pointed towards the row of transervers, followed by a young reploid boy. By the way he was walking it was obvious he couldn't see anything in the pitch-black basement, but Ashe could see him just fine.

She recognized the gun first – it was a non-standard Buster pistol, capable of charge attacks. It was significantly weaker than anything a Mega Man would carry, but slightly above the pistol she carried with her in human form. Uncharged it could probably handle most of the Infected that he would run across, as well as most mechaniloids, and its charged shots could probably take down a battle-ready maverick or two. She was curious where he might have gotten such a weapon, but would worry about that later.

He had a short crop of grey, almost white hair – in fact, it was a similar color to Ashe's own. It parted around his forehead, revealing the telltale triangular mark of a reploid. He had a number of strange white markings on his face, surrounding a pair of emerald green eyes, wide open in an attempt to see through the darkness. He held the gun steady with both hands, which were covered in a simple pair of dark purple gloves, with yellow wristbands at the cuffs. Aside from his red shorts and yellow shirt, the only other remarkable thing about the boy was the two red cables that extended from a red apparatus that circled his neck. Ashe had never seen those before.

She figured there was no point in taking chances. As the boy slowly crept forward she snuck up behind him. He didn't suspect a thing until the two kunai appeared, one at his neck, the other in the small of his back. He immediately froze.

"IDENTIFY YOURSELF," Ashe said in Siarnaq's droning robot voice.

"I'm not your enemy," the boy said, "I thought more infected people had come down."

Just by responding he confirmed that he wasn't Infected himself. Still, Ashe kept the kunai at his neck as she reached out and took the buster pistol out of his hands with the other. He let it go without a fight, then raised his hands in surrender. "I REPEAT, IDENTIFY YOURSELF."

"My name is Grey. Who are you?"

"I'M ASKING THE QUESTIONS HERE. WHY ARE YOU DOWN HERE?"

"Um...hiding from the things trying to kill me?" He said it like it was obvious, and on second thought it was. Ashe berated herself.

"RIGHT. GOOD ANSWER. HOW DID YOU-"

She stopped midsentence as Siarnaq's motion sensor suddenly went haywire. A large crowd of people were making their way towards them. Taking a gamble on whether the boy was telling the truth or not, she took the kunai from his throat and pushed him behind her. "STAY BEHIND ME, THERE'S SOMEONE BACK THERE."

"No, wait! They're okay! I led them down here." He looked past her shoulder and yelled, "It's okay, you can come out! He's not infected."

A group of people timidly shuffled around the corner, looking around cautiously. One of them turned on a flashlight, hitting Ashe in the face. The whole crowd then flinched backward.

"He might n-not be infected, b-but th-that's Siarnaq!" One of them yelled, pointing.

"What are you doing, he'll kill us too!" another voice yelled.

"WHOA, SORRY," Ashe said, waving them down with her hands, "I FORGOT." She changed back into her own body in a flash, then smiled at them. There were a number of startled yells from the crowd as they tried to figure out what was going on. "I'm not Siarnaq, I'm Ashe, the Model A Mega Man. I'm also a Hunter."

"How did you do that?" Grey asked from beside her. "Change bodies, I mean."

"That's Model A's power," she replied. "It lets me do a lot of awesome things like that."

"Hey, I know you!" a voice in the crowd yelled. "You're the one who destroyed the Ouroboros!"

"Saving the world is another one of the awesome things I do," Ashe replied with a grin, then continued on before people could ask more questions. "Okay, so, how did all of you folks get down here?"

"We all work in this building," a woman at the front replied. She looked like a receptionist of some sort. "Mostly from the bottom floor, actually. When the chaos started outside, Grey fought them off while we all ran downstairs."

"He saved us!" The man with the flashlight said, pointing at Grey.

"Oh really?" Ashe turned to look at Grey, who looked embarrassed at the recognition. "That's pretty impressive."

"Anyone could have done it," he said sheepishly. "I just happened to be the only one with a gun."

"That's another good question," Ashe said, narrowing her eyes a little as she held up Grey's gun. "Why does someone working in an office building have a gun like this? This is a military-grade weapon. Even most Hunters don't carry stuff like this unless they're looking for a fight."

"I don't work in the office," Grey replied. "I was in there asking for directions to Legion Tower when things went crazy. Some infected people stumbled in the front door and started attacking people, so I took them out and told everyone to head to the basement. I figured it was safest here.

"As for why I even had the gun in the first place...I don't know. I've always had it, and I've always known how to use it. I don't know where it came from. Or where I came from, for that matter." The boy shifted uncomfortably as he finished speaking. He obviously didn't want to talk about it.

"Wow, that's messed up," Model A said. "Did he lose his memory or something?"

Ashe was about to reply when Grey looked suddenly startled. "What? Who was that?" He glanced around. "Is there someone else here with you?"

"You heard him?!" Ashe said, at the same time Model A exclaimed "You heard me?"

Grey blinked in confusion. "Um, yeah. Who's talking?"

"I'm biometal Model A, and normal people can't hear a word I say! Hey Ashe, do you think this guy is...?"

Ashe was silent for a moment, then said, "I don't know. I think Fleuve might be interested in him though. Hey everyone, gather 'round." She motioned for the crowd of people to get closer so she could speak to them all while keeping her voice down.

"The reason I'm here is so that I can get the addresses off these transervers and send them back to my friends. In a little while, a whole bunch of guys in green outfits with guns are going to come through those transervers in a hurry. I need you all to sit tight here and keep hidden until they show up. They'll be looking for survivors like you, so let them know who you are and that you aren't infected, and they'll make sure you get out of here safely, okay?"

"Can't you stay here and protect us?" One of the crowd asked.

"I would, but I've got other things to do, and not much time to do them in," she replied sadly. "Don't worry, I'm sure Grey can keep you safe for now." She smiled and handed the boy back his gun. "He seems to know how to handle himself. It won't be much longer now, anyway. Now shoo, get back to hiding."

As the crowd gradually began to head back behind the boxes, Ashe turned back to Grey and caught his sleeve. "I need a couple more things from you," she replied quietly, so no one else would overhear.

"Sure, anything," the boy replied.

"First, when those guys in green I mentioned – the Guardians – come out, they're going to need to know the fastest way out of this building. Is there a way to get outside from here other than the elevator?"

"Yeah, there's a fire escape around the corner."

"Great, tell them that. See if anyone who works here knows of any other ways out – the faster they can get outside, the better.

"Second, once they get you out of here, I need you to find a reploid named Fleuve. He'll probably be on an airship called the _Faith_, so you may have to ask around before someone can get you up there. If anyone gives you trouble, tell them Ashe sent you and it's really important."

"Okay. What do you want me to tell him once I find him?"

"Tell him..." she thought for a moment. What was the best way to put it? "Tell him you heard Model A talking. He'll know why I sent him to you."

"Okay," Grey said, looking dubious. "Is it bad that I can hear Model A?"

"No, it just means...that you're a very special person, Grey. In fact, you're a lot like me. And I'd like to know why that is."

* * *

Vent was waiting at their rendezvous point for almost fifteen minutes before he saw Ashe slide quietly onto the rooftop. She slipped noiselessly out of the elevator ventilation shaft and ghosted across the rooftop, slipping between a pile of pipes and the side of the emergency staircase.

"What took so long," Vent said from where he lay, inside one of the pipes. "Run into some trouble?"

"NO, NOTHING LIKE THAT," she replied, unfazed. Vent had been hoping to startle her a little bit, but apparently she'd checked Siarnaq's scanner first and already knew he was there. She transformed back to Model A, as Siarnaq's voice wasn't really capable of being quiet. "I found some survivors over in D-block and...well, I'll tell you later, no time now. Are we ready to go?"

"Just waiting for-"

Vent stopped with a yelp as the building beneath them began to vibrate and shudder violently. They both stopped and looked at each other, confused, but neither seemed to understand what was going on, until they looked up in the sky.

All around the Legion Tower, a short distance away, a massive fleet of airships was rising into the sky. They were a variety of sizes, from two- or three-manned craft to vessels larger than the _Faith_. As they all reached a height just a short distance above that of the tallest buildings, they began moving out – heading directly for where Ashe and Vent now stood, almost completely exposed.

"Get off the roof," Model P commanded. "Now."

The command snapped them back to attention. They both bolted for the closest edge the roof and jumped, grabbing hold of the side and sliding down to the first broken window they found, then swinging in and landing in a roll.

"It's pretty easy to guess where those things are headed," Ashe whispered after regaining her feet, "but where do you think they came from? There isn't that much room around Legion Tower to land an entire fleet!"

"I don't know," Vent replied. "They must have levelled the surrounding city. It's going to be a lot harder to reach the Tower if there aren't any buildings to hide in and there's a fleet flying overhead. I don't think we have time to wait and see if they move on."

"I believe I've found an acceptable alternative," Model P announced. "We can use the subway system to approach within a few blocks of the Tower. Then we can return to our original route, as planned."

"That's risky," Model X replied. "We don't know whether the exits near the Tower are blocked or not. I'm pretty sure the subway system is still running, too. You'd have a fun time getting through the tunnels while dodging the trains."

"Yes, but aside from the surveillance around the stations, it should be relatively easy to infiltrate the system. And I believe we are well-equipped enough to get past anything we may find at the station."

Vent nodded. "And even if we run into some Infected down there, we should be able to take them out without anyone noticing."

There was silence for a few moments, then Model X grudgingly agreed to their plan. "It might not be a good plan, but it's still better than running across rooftops in full view of an airship fleet."

"My thoughts exactly," Model P agreed. "The subway entrance is approximately fifty meters to the northwest. You should be able to remain in stealth mode long enough to reach it undetected. We'll move out as soon as I get the transerver data from Model A and send it to the _Faith._ We'll have to move after that anyway, since they may be able to determine the source."

"So...we should get ready to run in case those ships realize we're here and start firing all those big, nasty cannons they've got?" Vent asked.

"That would be advisable, yes."

"Why didn't you say that part _first_," Ashe groaned.

"As we were already departing, I thought it redundant."

"Leaving because we're on a schedule and leaving because we're about to be blown to pieces by aerial artillery are two _very_ different things," Vent informed the biometal. "What's the quickest way out of here?"

"The elevator shaft leads straight to the bottom floor," Ashe told him, gesturing over her shoulder at a door. "The elevator's busted and sitting on the basement level. I already wedged the door open to get in."

"Less chatting, more moving," Model X interrupted. "We've got fifteen minutes before the Guardians start transferring in, and we need to be in the Tower by then."

"Yes sir," Ashe replied mockingly.

* * *

Leviathan felt a grumbling Aile in her head. _How nice of you to rejoin us._

_Ngh...wha? Model L? What happened?_ She sounded confused. _I remember passing out in the lake...hey, where are we? What happened to the pseudoroid?_

_I handled the pseudoroid. We're in Hunter Camp, discussing troop division with Zero. It's almost time to move into Legion City, I was wondering if you were going to wake up by then or if I'd have to do it all myself._

_ Give me a break, I almost died,_ Aile replied dryly. _Besides, I'm sure you'd be _so_ upset if you had to do it yourself._

"Is Aile back?" Zero interrupted.

Leviathan realized she must have looked like she was spacing out for the past few moments. She smiled at Zero and said, "Yes, sorry. She just woke up, and has quite a number of questions. If we're done here, I'd like to fill her in."

"I think we are. I'll go inform the squad commanders of their assignments. Just make sure you're ready to go on time."

"Of course. Who do you think you're talking to?"

Zero left without dignifying that with a response.

_So, how are we doing? Did Ashe and Vent sent the coordinates okay? How many transerver addresses did we get?"_

"Calm down, girl. We got the coordinates a few minutes ago, and Zero and I were dividing the troops up among them. We've got a pretty good spread, but the largest portion of them is going to follow us into what looks like an office building. There was a bank of about eight of them there so we should be able to deploy quickly. Zero's going to take one a little bit farther away and meet up with us at the Tower."

_All right. So...why do I look like a tank? And why am I wearing heels?! I don't know how to walk in heels! _

Leviathan chuckled. "Aile, this Biomerge has a few...interesting side effects that I hadn't expected."

_That sounds bad, but what does it have to do with me falling on my ass trying to walk in these ridiculous boots?_

"Well, it turns out the flow of data from the biometal into your brain is even higher than I thought it would be. In fact, it's so high that if there's anything I know how to do that you don't, I can teach it to you faster than you can think it. Effectively, anything I know how to do, you know how to do."

_So if I tried to walk in these stupid boots, it would feel like I'd always known how?_

"You could _fight_ in these boots and never lose your balance. I always did, after all. I was programmed that way. More importantly, you can make full use of my power without having to ask me about it all the time. My biometal is basically a part of your body now – using it should feel as natural as walking."

_Well...that's pretty cool._

"Indeed. So I won't bother explaining to you all the different things I can do now. Suffice to say, they will come to you naturally as the situation requires. Though I'd like to point out in particular how much stronger we are in the water. The increase power from the biometal will let you do a lot of things that you couldn't before."

_Oh? What kind of-_

Aile stopped asking the question when she realized, just as Leviathan had said, she discovered that she already knew the answer.

_Oh, wow! I can control water!_

"Yes, but you can't create it. That's why I'm so powerful underwater – there's plenty of it available. Between that and the speed my power regenerates at, you can do a lot of...interesting things."

_So if I can control individual water molecules-_

"You could, but it would be a waste of time, You need several hundred thousand molecules before it makes a difference."

_I have been to science class before, thank you,_ Aile replied sarcastically. _What I was _going_ to say was, if I can control water molecules, does that mean I could make them hold together really tightly, and make body armor out of them?_

"Well, I suppose, but it wouldn't be as strong as what we're wearing now. Besides, I prefer to just not get hit. Water can influence the path of most projectiles. Except plasma weapons – those are a bit tricky."

_Speaking of which, what _are_ we wearing right now?_

"Well, my power and manoeuvrability are a little low on land, so I thought additional armor would be prudent. You'll probably notice that since my power has increased so much, none of this feels any heavier than it used to. I thought I actually did a rather good job of designing it so that it would stay out of the way while fighting. If you don't like it you can always take it off."

_Well, let me take a look at it first...hey. I can't move my body._

Leviathan grimaced. "Yes, I was getting to that."

_What do you mean? Model L, what did you-_

"Stop calling me that."

_What? Why? Model L, you're scaring me, give me my body back!_

"I will, in a moment. I just need you to understand. I'm not...I'm not just a biometal anymore."

_What do you mean?_

Leviathan grimaced and fidgeted uncomfortably. She hadn't been looking forward to this conversation. "In order to make the link between us strong enough to do everything I wanted it to, I also had to make it so strong that your body can't tell the difference between us anymore. If I'm in control, you can't take it back until I give it to you, the same as it was for you before. At this very second, this body is mine as much as it is yours."

_Okay...I guess that makes sense. Otherwise it might get confused. So, what's your point?_

"It's more than just that, Aile." Leviathan sighed in frustration. She wasn't sure how to explain it properly. "As a biometal, I didn't have my own body. I was just a...a...consciousness, a talking rock, a tool for other people to use. But now I have a body again. I can do things that _I_ want to do, rather than what someone else wants me to do. I'm not a tool anymore.

"I'm not Model L."

There was a cold silence between them as Aile thought about the former biometal's words. Leviathan knew she was pushing it – she hadn't really meant to give herself so much power over Aile's body, but it had been necessary. But once she realized exactly how much power she now had, and that she was once again capable of taking control of her own life...Fairy Leviathan wasn't going to let _anyone_ control her ever again.

_For better or worse, I am my own person, and I need to be treated as such. Otherwise, neither of us will ever be happy._

It wasn't long before she got an unexpected response; Aile laughed. _All right, fine. You're not Model L. But I don't really see the difference. I always treated you as a person, didn't I?_

"But now I've got control of your body. Are you sure you can trust me with that?"

_We already went over this. If I didn't trust you with it, we wouldn't have even gotten this far. I trust you won't do anything with it that I wouldn't do. Or at least you'll ask me first. So, if you don't want to be called Model L, what _do_ you want to be called?_

"One hundred years ago, I was called Fairy Leviathan. We all typically went by our last names, though, so you can just call me Leviathan."

_Fair enough. Now, how about that mirror?_

"I haven't seen one. Find it yourself."

And Aile was abruptly back in control. "Well, that was sudden."

"You'll get used to it, I'm sure," Model L replied in her biometal voice.

After a brief look around the otherwise empty room, Aile managed to get a good look at herself in the remains of a broken computer screen.

"You've got good taste," Aile finally decided. "This armored skirt thing moves like it's not even there, and nothing feels like it's getting in the way. But did your body really have blue hair? That seems a little silly."

"My body didn't have any hair at all, actually. I always wanted it though, and I thought blue would be most appropriate."

"Yeah, I think you're right." Aile swished it back and forth a few times, just to see it move. She usually kept her own brown hair in a ponytail, but she could get used to letting it hang loose.

Just before she turned away, she noticed her eyes. The left one was her familiar light green, but her right was now a dark ocean blue. It was slightly unnerving. "Is it always going to look like that?"

"I'm not sure. Probably. I told you, now this is my body too."

"I know, it's just...Fleuve is going to have _so many_ questions."

"And now you'll know how _I_ felt every time you put me in his little scientist clutches. Don't worry, we'll get through it together.

"Now hurry up and get going. The fate of the world is hinging on us and we don't want to be late."

"No pressure, right?" Aile sighed.

Leviathan cyber-shrugged. "You get used to it."

* * *

**Author's Note**

Told you this one would be faster. Most of this was supposed to be in the previous chapter, but i cut it in favor of better flow, and so I could add that section with Grey without taking away from the last chapter's Aile-Leviathan developments, which continue here. He just kinda worked himself in there. I didn't even plan for him to be there until I was writing it and thought "hey, why not?". Anyway, don't expect him to do too much in this story. All the interesting Grey stuff is planned for the theoretical sequel, tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2020. :P

I have no idea where Path to the Truth plays, or even what song it is. I needed a chapter name so I looked up the track lists on Mega Man Network and picked one that kinda fit. Like I said, this part was supposed to be in the previous and next parts, so I had to come up with a name quick. It doesn't really work, but I've only got so many choices here. I've already decided that for my next story I'm just going to limit myself to song titles, period. I keep wanting to do that with this one, but I got this far in my current system, I'd hate to break it now.

This part was actually finished a couple weeks ago, but I've been holding it back to spread out the chapter releases and give myself time to write the next part. As a result I'm actually a fair way through it already, so hopefully that one won't take as long to get out either. We're going to start getting to the really fun stuff now. :D

Been getting some really great reviews lately, keep them coming. I love hearing from you all. :)


	31. Part 28: Trap Factory

**Part 28: Trap Factory**

"I don't like this," Model X grumbled.

"You said that before we even came down here," Ashe replied tiredly. "You said it as soon as we were inside. You said it when we crossed the platform. And now you've said it three times since we entered the tunnel. _We get it_."

"I know, that was just me being paranoid. But really, there's something strange going on here."

"Yeah, you're being more annoying than Model A," Ashe replied again.

"Hey!" Model A complained, but Vent cut him off before the conversation could get sidetracked.

"What do you mean, Model X? We weren't expecting to find anyone down here. The chances of an Infected getting on the subway is pretty slim."

"I know, but the subways are automated. They should be running whether there's anyone on them or not. But we haven't had a single one go by since we came down here."

"Well, pretty much everything else in Legion is busted, what makes you think the subways would still work?" Ashe replied.

"I agree," Model P chimed in. "The probability of a malfunction occurring in the scheduling subsystem of the subway mainframe is quite high. It is common knowledge that, due to recent cutbacks in the transportation budget, most mass transit systems in Legion were in need of maintenance to some degree or another. Also, much of the automation is done by mechaniloids, which we have established are vulnerable to the Maverick Virus, so it likely that-

"Okay, okay, I get the point, I'll shut up. I'm just saying-"

"_I don't like it,"_ they all finished with him.

They silently stalked down the train tunnel, moving quickly. Going by Model P's schematics they were getting close to Legion Tower, which meant they were increasingly likely to run into Mavericks or Infected.

Vent was jogging down the middle of the ten-foot-wide tunnel in Model PX, eyes trained forward for any sign of enemies. Ashe, on the other hand, had opted not to stay as Siarnaq, and was instead following along the side of the tunnel, keeping one hand against the tunnel wall to keep her direction steady. The wall was smooth, except for every twenty steps or so, when she passed by one of the support beams holding the tunnel up.

It was when she was passing by one of these supports that she heard a "beep" from the wall, and something lit up. She turned to look at it and saw a flashing red light. "Huh...?"

"Ashe, I think it's a bomb!" Model A yelled. "Run!"

The red light stopped flashing.

* * *

Vent turned around just in time to see the wall beside Ashe light up in a fiery explosion that lit up the tunnel as far as he could see. By the time his brain processed what had happened it was over. Large chunks of metal and rock flew toward him - easily sidestepped - accompanied by a choking cloud of dust that blocked even Model P's enhanced vision.

"Ashe?!" He yelled. No answer. There was too much moving debris for Model P's scanner to pick out anything useful. "_Ashe!"_

"I'm here," a robotic voice answered from inside the dust cloud, followed by cough. "I'm fine. Gonna need some help getting this stuff off me though."

vent rushed over to the sound of the voice and finally saw her. The flash of her A-Trans had been lost in the explosion, and Chronoforce was now half-buried under a small pile of tunnel siding, large rocks, and dirt from the surrounding cavern wall. It only took a few seconds for Vent to blast it all away with his X-Busters, and Ashe switched back to her normal form, brushing herself off as she got up. "Well, that sucked."

"It could have been worse, "Vent replied. "That was pretty quick thinking. What was it, anyway?"

"There was a bomb on the wall!" Model A exclaimed. "It was attached to the support beam. Ashe must have triggered it by accident when her hand slid over it."

"Why was there a bomb on the wall?" Vent wondered aloud.

"Simple," Model P replied. "This is a trap."

There was silence for a moment as everyone marvelled at Model P's deadpan delivery, as though he'd known they were walking into a trap all along.

"But how could they know we were going to come this way?" Model A asked.

"That's not important," Model X interrupted him. "They know we're here, and we just sprung their trap early. We need to get out of here before-"

The ground shuddered. Moments later they all heard a deafening crash from behind them, followed shortly after by another tremor, and another crash. And another.

"Too late," Model P said. "It would seem that these explosives have been planted all along the walls of this tunnel. I should have seen them earlier."

"Time for regrets later!" Vent turned and yelled, "Run!"

They took off at top speed down the tunnel, all thoughts of stealth forgotten. They could both feel and hear the series of explosions behind them, the tunnel collapsing along with them as the supports were destroyed.

"We just need to reach Legion Tower and get out of the subway before it catches up!" Vent yelled.

"How did they know we were going to come down here?" Ashe yelled back. "Nobody outside of the base knew the plan!"

"We weren't going to go down here," Model P interrupted. "The plan was to stay on the rooftops, until-"

"The ships!" Vent exclaimed. "They already knew where we were, they were just trying to force us down here!"

"If they knew where we were...how much more do they know?" Ashe wondered. A chill ran down her spine. "Do they know all the transerver coordinates we sent back? Aile and Zero might be transferring right into a trap! We have to warn them!"

Vent shook his head. "I tried, someone is jamming it! They're definitely onto us!"

"Warning, hostiles detected ahead," Model P suddenly interrupted moments before a hail of plasma fire came streaking down the tunnel, the light of the bullets giving Ashe and Vent just enough time to dive out of the way. They rolled to a stop behind support beams on either side of the tunnel, giving them a slight bit of cover against the rain of bullets. Each time an enemy fired the muzzle flash briefly illuminated their faces, and the Mega Men quickly returned fire, taking down a half-dozen Maverick troops in their first volley. The rest hid behind large boxes and other metal scraps that had been places all through the tunnel expressly for that purpose. It was obvious the Mavericks were just there to delay the two Mega Men and keep them from reaching the far end of the tunnel.

"Now what?!" Ashe yelled over the gunfire, as the rumbling and crashing noises behind them continued getting closer. "We don't have time to scrap all of these guys!"

"We have to go through them!" Vent yelled back as he fired two more charged shots down the tunnel, taking out another Maverick. "I'm open to ideas!"

"So go over them!" Model X exclaimed.

"What?!"

"The roof of the tunnel is made of metal," Model X explained, loudly enough that Ashe could hear him across the tunnel. "Model P's boots can magnetize themselves briefly to allow you to stick to walls. You should be able to use that to get across the ceiling."

"With that amount of momentum and weight, the field would only hold for a second, at most." Model P clarified. "You would need to reapply the effect very quickly. It would help if you didn't stay directly upside down for very long – try and move up and down the sides of the tunnel."

"So basically, we can run across the ceiling, as long as we run really fast?" Ashe yelled in between volleys.

"Isn't that what I said?" Model P asked. The explosions were visible behind them now, only a short distance away.

"I think I'm ready to go pretty fast!" Vent yelled. He Megamerged with Model P while Ashe transformed into Siarnaq, then they both burst from cover, going opposite directions diagonally across the tunnel. They crossed paths briefly in the middle, then went up the side of the tunnel just before the maverick line, with a hail of plasma bullets pummeling the ground a hair's breadth behind them.

To anyone watching, Vent's legs became as blur as he used every ounce of Model P's speed he could. As he shot up the side of the tunnel his boots stuck to the sides, then he was suddenly upside down. Ashe crossed his path again at the top, then they were going down the opposite sides of the tunnel again.

Not expecting an attack from above, the mavericks were caught off guard when their targets were suddenly above them. They turned their plasma rifles on the two Mega Men, but they moved so quickly that by the time any of them could take aim the two blurs were back on the ground, sliding in between their opponents on the ground. Kunai flashed and any maverick that passed within a few feet exploded, either sliced open or impaled as Ashe and Vent swept back up onto the walls and ceiling.

Figuring the mavericks would eventually catch on to their pattern, Vent decided to change it up a bit. Near the top of the tunnel he turned off his boots, sending himself launching towards the ground. He hit the ground in a roll with only a slight loss of speed, coming up daggers-first into a pair of mavericks. Before they could even explode he was running back up the walls in the opposite direction, only a few meters behind Ashe. She caught on to the tactic and did the same thing, dropping from the ceiling surrounded by Mandala Stars, which shredded any mavericks she passed on her way back up the tunnel's side.

Despite their speed, however, the crashing of the exploding tunnel was catching up to them. Vent spared a brief glance backward just in time to see the first mavericks they'd passed disappear beneath a cave-in as the explosives beside them triggered.

"It's catching up!" Vent yelled as he crossed paths with Ashe at the top of the tunnel.

"We're almost there!" Model A yelled back. "It's just a little-"

The tunnel was illuminated by a single massive explosion from a short distance ahead of them, the shockwave knocking them both off balance and killing their momentum. Both Mega Men abruptly fell ungracefully to the ground, though they managed to avoid any serious injuries. The wave reverberated down the length of the tunnel like a small earthquake, knocking down most of the remaining mavericks, giving Vent and Ashe a brief respite from their firepower.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Ashe yelled in Siarnaq's distinctive voice.

"My guess is that they just destroyed the exit," Model P replied matter-of-factly. "It's what I would do."

"Oh, just great!" Vent replied, then yelled to Ashe. "Model P thinks it was the exit, but we have to keep moving anyway! Go!"

They ran down the tunnel, which was now devoid of maverick opposition – apparently they had made it past the decoy forces. That made sense, Vent supposed – if they made it this far, their plan was to blow the exit anyway, at which point they didn't really need the decoys anymore.

Sure enough, the entire subway platform for Legion Station was now gone, buried under tons of rock, metal, and dirt. A few emergency lights still flickered, providing the area with very dim light – just enough to see that the subway tunnel ended here.

As the explosions got closer and closer, Ashe and Vent turned to each other, the same thought plain on their faces – this was the end of the line. There was nowhere else to go.

"I might have a way out," Model X informed them. "These city plans say there's a ventilation shaft for the Legion Tower basement levels behind that wall over there." He indicated to Vent which way he meant.

"How far?" Vent asked, pointing it out to Ashe.

"The wall is a few inches of steel, following by three feet of rock, and then another few inches of metal on the other side."

Ashe didn't even wait for Model X's response. She was already charging Atlas's Knuckle Busters, and with two explosive punches tore through the steel wall like it wasn't even there, hitting the rock behind it. Vent joined in, changing back to Model X and firing a pair of charged shots into the cavity, vaporizing a small portion of it.

"Approximately twenty seconds before the explosives in this section of the tunnel detonate," Model P reported.

Ashe pounded furiously at the wall with Atlas's fists, yelling between each punch.

"_I-_"

**_BANG_**

_ "-WILL-"_

**_ BANG_**

_ "-NOT-"_

**_ BANG_**

_ "-DIE-"_

**_ BANG_**

_ "-IN-"_

**_ BANG_**

_ "-THIS-"_

**_ BANG_**

_ "-HOLE!"_

"Almost there!" Vent yelled, as he caught a glimpse of a metal wall on the other side of the rock.

"Five seconds!" Model P reported, as a support fifty feet away blew up with a crash.

Ashe pulled back, changed into Buckfire in a flash of A-Trans, and let out a yell as she unleashed the biggest, most powerful Meteor Kick she could. She hit the wall with a crash...and kept on going, leaving a Buckfire-sized hole in the wall behind her.

Vent dove head first through the opening as an explosive less than ten feet away went off, bringing a rain of rocks and dirt down behind him. He collided shoulder-first with the opposite side of the ventilation shaft and fell down a short distance before colliding with Ashe, who had propped herself up against the sides of the relatively narrow shaft with Buckfire's long legs. The impact knocked her loose, and they both tumbled down through the shaft, accompanied by a thin stream of dirt and some smaller rocks that trickled down through the now-collapsed hole they had made.

As he tumbled through the air, Vent switched back to Model P again, grabbed hold of Ashe's nearest limb, which happened to be her left foot, then latched himself to the side of the shaft. The weight of her pulled him down a slight distance, but he managed to hang on, leaving Ashe dangling upside-down below him.

"You okay?' he whispered, unsure of how far sound would travel through the shaft, or who might be able to hear him.

Ashe sneezed as a bunch of dust fell past her. "Peachy."

He swung her gently over to the opposite side so she could flip over and support herself. "Where to, Model X?"

"This shaft doesn't go down as far as we need, so I'll have to guide you to one that does. For now, just head to the bottom."

"Shouldn't we try and warn Aile and Zero? They're walking into a trap!" Model A said worriedly.

"Correction," Model P answered, "they've already walked into the trap. Even if we could find our way to the surface and somehow managed to contact them – they're blocking our communications, remember - it would be too late. Our best choice of action is to continue on with our objective – their losses will have been for naught if we haven't completed our own objectives in the meantime. At the very least, I have faith that Aile and Zero will make it to the tower as planned. It is simply a matter of how many of our forces make it there with them."

"That's a pretty gruesome way to put it, but you're right," Vent replied, mentally checking the time. "Look at the bright side: we made it to Legion Tower on schedule."

"Well, at least _something_ is going according to plan," Ashe remarked dryly, then smiled. "But you know, I gotta say, this is a pretty awesome first date. It fits my style perfectly; the explosions were an especially nice touch."

Vent smirked and went along with the joke. "I thought you might enjoy them. You don't seem like a dinner-and-flowers kind of girl."

"He gets me! Best. Boyfriend. _Ever._"

* * *

Aile was the first to step out of the transervers into the dark basement. The Guardians followed immediately afterward on the other transervers, turning on the lights at the ends of their rifles as they took up defensive positions around the room. Aile scanned the area quickly and found a swarm of life-signs nearby, behind some crates. The ambient light from the Guardian's rifles illuminated the room enough that she could see one of the figures as it came towards her, but not enough to tell what it was.

Just as she was about to motion for a few soldiers to back her up, the figure shouted, "Hello? Are you the Guardians?"

Aile was caught by surprise for a moment, and several nearby Guardians turned their rifles towards the voice, their lights revealing a teenaged reploid. Aile took a moment to register this, then replied, "Yes, that's us. Are you all survivors?" She motioned towards the crates.

"Yeah. Ashe said you'd be coming." The boy came forward, holding out his hand. "I'm Grey, and these people are all from this building. We were hiding out down here until we could figure out what to do, then Ashe came and said you all would be coming."

Upon hearing Grey talking normally with someone, the crowd of people began to slowly creep out from behind the crates. Aile could see it was quite a crowd. "How many of you are here?"

"Forty two, plus myself. They're all workers from this building. I happened to be inside asking for directions when infected people started coming in from the street and trying to kill everyone. I led them down here with this-" he held up his Buster pistol "-and we've been hiding out ever since. Ashe said you could get us out of here."

"Definitely," Aile reassured him, and then looked to the growing crowd of anxious faces behind him. "Don't worry, we'll get you all out of here safely. Just wait for the rest of my team to finish transferring in, then we'll have you out of here in no time."

The sighs of relief that came from the huddled crowd was one of those things that made Aile feel glad to be a Mega Man. She turned back to her assembling crowd of Guardians with a smile on her face, ready to start dispensing orders. She was surprised to find Grey accompanying her.

"There's a couple other things," the boy said, quietly enough that nobody else could hear him over the low hum of conversation and the sound of Guardians transferring in. "Ashe said you would want to know where the closest exits are. I can show them to you."

"That would be quite handy," Leviathan replied. "The faster we can get our units out of the building and into the streets, the better. Being cramped inside this one building isn't a secure location – they could just bring the building down on top of us and squash us all."

"Sounds like a good idea," Aile replied to them both at once.

"She also said that I needed to see someone named Fleuve. Do you know how I can find him?"

"Fleuve?" Aile replied, confused. "What did she tell you to see him for?"

"Um...she said to say that I can hear Model A talk."

Aile was momentarily stunned to speechlessness. Leviathan had no such trouble.

"So he's a Model A Chosen One. Since he can't hear me that would mean he's still never Megamerged, which I suppose makes sense. Yes, Fleuve will definitely want to see him – no one has ever had a chance to examine a Chosen One before they've Megamerged. It might shine some light on what exactly is different between a Chosen One and a normal human or reploid. Very interesting indeed."

"Right," Aile replied, regaining her wits. "Well, we're supposed to be under radio silence, but I think Fleuve will definitely want to know you're coming." She connecting her communicator through to Fleuve's...and received nothing but static. "Huh?"

"I don't know," Leviathan said, curious. "Maybe we're too far away. Try contacting Zero."

Aile did, but still got no response. "Nope. I can't get anyone. It's like someone is blocking the signal, but how could they be doing such a targeted block of our communications if they don't know we're here?"

It occurred to them both at once. "It's a trap," Aile and Leviathan said simultaneously. Aile immediately spun towards the transervers and yelled, "Destroy those, now!"

Not sure what was going on, but trained to obey orders, the closest Guardians all turned their guns on the bank of transervers and opened fire, reducing them to rubble in seconds.

"How many got through?" Aile asked a nearby Guardian who had just come out of the transerver.

"We were the last group," the woman replied. "What's going-"

She was interrupted when the entire building shook violently, like something was trying to knock it over.

"What's going on is, this is a trap," Aile replied. "I don't know how, but they know we're in here, and they're going to try and bring this building down on top of us." She turned to the group of huddled survivors, who had moments ago thought they were going to be saved, only to have their hopes dashed again. "I'm sorry, everyone, but it looks like you're going to have to stick around a little bit longer."

She turned back to the assembled Guardians, who had now organized themselves into their squads, as decided back at the Hunter Base. "Okay, listen up," Aile shouted as the building shook again, this time dislodging bits of ceiling. "We need to get out of this building. Expect heavy resistance as soon as you reach ground level. Push outside and try to find cover. Grey, where are you?" She herded the boy up beside her. "This is Grey, and he knows the layout of this building. Have him show you the fastest ways out of here, but make sure to cover all the exits. When it looks like you've established a safe perimeter, get these people to a safe place. Try and meet up with another squad and form a defensive line."

"What about the plan? Aren't we supposed to be heading for Legion Tower?" One of the soldiers asked.

"Plans change," Aile replied. "We are undoubtedly going to find more survivors, and we can't afford to leave these or any others behind." The building shook again. "All right, let's _GO!"_

The well-trained and disciplined Guardian squads quickly organized themselves into waves, moving out of the room in stages so as not to get in each the way of the next groups. Aile held Grey back for a moment to ask, "Where's the fastest way to the roof?"

"Probably up the main elevator shaft," Grey replied, pointing down the hall in the opposite direction all the Guardians were going, "but the elevator isn't working."

"Not a problem," Aile replied with a smirk. "Now get going, and take care of yourself. Try not to actually get into the line of fire, all right? Just show these guys where to go, and help lead those people to safety." Then she dashed down the corridor and headed in the direction Grey had indicated.

"Why are you going to the roof?" Grey yelled after her.

"I don't want anyone to get in my way," she yelled back, then disappeared around the corner.

* * *

Aile found the elevator door already pried open, so she slipped into the shaft and quickly made her way upwards. The building continued to shudder and shake, and a few pieces of concrete fell down from above, but she dodged it handily and was soon at the top floor, where she found the door had once again been pried open.

Once through the door, she found that most of the top floor had been obliterated. She could see the clear blue sky through any of the numerous holes in the ceiling where it had been either blown apart or collapsed downward, evidenced by how many pieces the debris had been blown into and how many scorch marks there were.

"This is crazy," Aile said. "They're honestly trying to blow the entire building up using heavy artillery." There was a loud crash and crunching noise, and the building shook again.

"Now just artillery," Leviathan replied. "That felt like something hitting the side. They've probably got some construction mechaniloids out there breaking the place to pieces. Hurry up and get up there, we need to know exactly what we're dealing with so we can form a plan."

"I know, I'm going," Aile said with a sigh. "I just thought I might take a little breather before jumping out into the blasting range of a giant cannon or twelve."

"Hah! You underestimate me. With this much armor on they could probably hit you dead-on and you'd just end up with a mild headache."

"It's the 'probably' part that I'm worried about."

"Oh, you're no fun."

Aile jumped up through one of the nearby holes in the ceiling, emerging onto the battered rooftop just in time to see another barrage of missiles and cannon fire hurtling through the air towards her from a nearby squadron of small-heavily-armed ships.

"I thought they didn't have any ships left!" Aile exclaimed.

"We also thought we were surprising them," Leviathan replied. "Looks like we were wrong about a lot of things. Now, are you going to take care of those missiles, or shall I?"

"I'll do it, I'll do it, geez."

Leviathan's trident appeared in Aile's hands, and she was only moderately surprised to find it now had two heads. She had no doubt that she would immediately find herself an expert in wielding a two-headed trident, courtesy of her biolink.

Charging up some power, Aile channeled it into one trident head, then released it with a slash. As the blade arced through the air it unleashed a crescent of ice that cut through the sky towards the incoming missiles – she fired a second one on the backswing, just to be sure. The ice blade hit the closest missile, bursting into a million sharpened ice shards, which shot out in all directions, piercing other nearby missiles as they flew through the cloud, causing them to explode as well. The second ice blade cleaned up the few that the first missed.

Aile didn't have time to congratulate herself, as she felt the building shake beneath her. She dashed over to the edge of the roof and looked down at the street several floors below, where she saw, as expected, a pair of demolition mechaniloids going to work on the side of the building. They were both about twenty feet tall, roughly humanoid in shape, but had only a command center for a head, and two large wrecking balls for arms, which they repeatedly bashed into the side of the building. Relatively unguided, they weren't being terribly efficient at their destruction, but several floors had already collapsed where they had broken down enough supports, raining debris down into the street.

Aile turned and saw another volley of missiles on the way, this time from a different ship, so she didn't have time to mess around with the mechaniloids. She formed a massive Ice Cracker in the air above each one, then let it fall before turning away.

"I don't have time to keep intercepting these missiles," Aile complained as she fired another pair of ice crescents into the air. The explosions from the missiles combined with the sound of two exploding mechaniloids to shake the entire building, dislodging much of the remaining ceiling. Aile was now standing on one of the few remaining pieces, which ran around three edges of the roof.

"If we had enough water we could cover the entire building in an ice shield," Leviathan mused. "I have enough power, but there isn't enough water in the air."

As the sounds of explosions and crumbling rock faded away, Aile realized she could hear the sounds of battle coming from below. She rushed over to the side and saw several mavericks in the streets firing at the front of the building, keeping the Guardians trapped inside. They were also in the windows of the building across the street,firing down at odd angles that prevented the pinned soldiers from easily firing back.

Aile put out her hand and released more power, creating three ice Dragons that rushed out towards the building. Each one bit clean through a maverick, then continued no inside to continue wreaking havoc among the enemy forces. It didn't take much to destroy an Ice Dragon, but they might get a couple more before being destroyed, and it gave the Guardians at the door a few moment's reprieve from attacks from above.

"We're in the middle of the city," Aile finally replied. "There's got to be water pipes under the streets. We just need to-"

Aile was abruptly interrupted when a small aircraft, about the size of a transport truck, flew overhead, carpet bombing the rooftop. Aile had a split second to shield her face before she was engulfed in flames.

Immediately after finishing the bomb run, the small, nimble aircraft turned around, trained a pair of small cannons on the place Aile had been, and began firing rounds into the dust cloud formed by the explosives. The cannon fire blew back the dust, revealing an unscratched Aile, who was blocking the cannon blasts with her gauntlets.

"You weren't kidding," she remarked to Leviathan, "this armor really is tough stuff."

"Well, if we're not going to be mobile, we may as well be protected," Leviathan replied. "Now, why don't you crash that aircraft into the street and see if it knocks any pipes loose?"

"Good idea."

Aile dashed forward and jumped off the building, getting enough height that she managed to land on top of the low-flying ship. A quick stab into the cockpit-area had the desired effect of causing the ship to lose control and spiral down to the street, smoking and sputtering. She jumped off before the ship hit the pavement and exploded with a bang, sending concrete flying in all directions. Aile stepped sideways to dodge a street light as she ran over to the impact point, listening for the comforting sound of water gushing from underground pipes.

She wasn't disappointed. Apparently the ship had decided to crash into an access pipe, and water was now gushing all across the street. "Finally, some good news."

As soon as her foot touched it, Aile could feel the flow of water through all the pipes within several blocks. For her newfound Model L powers, this was almost the same as an unlimited supply of power.

For a few brief moments, she felt like a god.

Then she got hit in the side by an artillery shell.

Or would have, if Leviathan hadn't warned her in time to turn and raise her armored forearms and absorb the blast. As the air cleared she saw her attacker, a tank-looking mechaniloid with three rotating barrels a short ways down the street, already preparing another shot.

In the time it took the tank to reload, Aile formed a twelve-foot-long ice spear in the air above her shoulder, then sent it flying with a throwing motion. Where normal ice would have shattered, the spear sank into the hardened steel shell, piercing straight through the core and out the other side. The tank and the spear exploded together, shooting deadly shrapnel in all directions, killing several other nearby mavericks.

"Not bad," Leviathan commented, "though I'm hardly impressed. Surely you can do better than that?"

Aile grinned. "Oh, I'm just getting started."

* * *

Upon transferring in, Zero quickly detected the squad of mavericks waiting in ambush and dispatched them. He tried to contact Aile and discovered the signal jamming, so he decided that his next objective was to gather as many of the nearby squads that had survived, regroup, and head for Legion Tower as planned. Hopefully he would find Aile along the way, or at least meet her there.

He could have wasted time wondering how the mavericks had ambushed them so easily, but he didn't see the point. It didn't change the situation, and it wouldn't change the rest of the plan. It was too late to back out now, so they had no choice but to go forward. He hoped they would be able to determine the cause of the jamming and take it out so they could warn Fleuve, but unfortunately it wasn't a priority. As grim as it sounded, saving the _Faith_ was optional – stopping Thomas was not.

_Fleuve is smart, as soon as he realizes he's lost contact with us, he'll know something's up._ The question was, what would his decision be? Would he proceed as planned and fly in to give them air support, or hang back and let them get pulverized from above? After all, he didn't know there was a fleet of ships – they had all assumed the air forces would be used in the main assault, and all that would be left in Legion City would be ground troops.

_No point dwelling on it. What happens, happens. Time to get moving._

True to his title, Zero carved a path of destruction through the city, leaving nothing alive in his wake. He moved to four of the nearby transfer points, finding Guardian soldiers pinned down at three of them – it was too late for the fourth. By the time he set out towards the Tower he had forty-six soldiers in three squads chasing after him, picking among the ruins of smoking maverick corpses for survivors.

He had climbed to the top of a building to plan a route to the Tower when it happened. There was a brief period of trembling, and then a giant, massive ice snake tumbled by end over end. The head was grabbing the tail in its own jaws, rolling down the street, crushing everything in its path. It went across the intersection in front of Zero's building and wiped out several humanoid mavericks and Infected, then came up against a larger mechaniloid. It had tank treads on the bottom but a humanoid top, with a massive plasma cannon for one arm and a heavy, reinforced shield for the other. It fired a massive plasma burst at the rolling serpent, vaporizing a large portion of it. The beast wobbled a bit, but continued rolling. It reached the mechaniloid just before it could fire another round and rammed right into it. As the serpent's momentum carried it forward it wrapped it's body around the top of the tank, then Zero had barely enough time to duck below the roof's edge before it exploded, taking the mechaniloid with it. When he got back to his feet, Zero saw nothing but a smoking hole where the tank had been.

_Good to know Aile is doing fine. _He decided to change his plans and rendezvous with Leviathan's Chosen One. She couldn't be too far away, and their combined force stood a better chance of making in to the Tower in one piece. She'd gone with the largest group of soldiers, and if they'd all made it out intact it would double the size of their force.

He motioned to the soldiers coming up behind him his direction, then headed off down the street the dragon had been rolling down.

* * *

As much as she would have liked to stay at her one access point to water, Aile knew they had to move. After clearing out the buildings surrounding their transfer point, she took all but eight of her Guardians and headed for the Tower, leaving the others behind to guard Grey and the civilians. She also memorized the locations of the next closest sewer access points.

They made good progress through the city for a time, to the point that Aile was becoming suspicious. Once they'd escaped the initial ambush and gotten a few blocks away, there were actually not that many mavericks about. This, of course, made her immediately suspect another trap. Unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do other than walk in and spring it. She told her teams to stay on their toes and be on the lookout for an ambush, then led them onward.

It wasn't too long before the trap was sprung. The ground rumbled for a few seconds of warning, then a massive mechaniloid scorpion burst from the ground, pavement chunks flying everywhere from its explosive entrance. Most of the Guardian troops were knocked off balance, but Aile just swatted a few pieces of debris away and held her ground, which was when she saw the swarm of Galleon soldiers climbing out of the tunnel behind the scorpion. She had no time to waste.

Before the beast even had time to bring its pincers around to attack she launched herself at it's forehead, thrusting her trident right through the protective plating. Unfortunately, whatever it was that powered the scorpion wasn't located there. She'd definitely hit something though, as the mechaniloid suddenly began to thrash around wildly. With her trident still piercing it's head, Aile hung on like a rodeo, riding the clawed monstrosity as it bucked and flailed about the street, taking out a not-insignificant portion of the Galleons soldiers with it. The rest were starting to open fire on her Guardian squad.

The Guardians ran for whatever nearby cover they could find – overturned cars, trash cans, and alleyways provided minimum protection, but if they stayed out in the open they were dead for sure. Aile was thankful that the Galleons coming from the hole didn't seem to be very heavily armed, but then cursed when additional enemy fire started raining down from above. She had time to glance up and see Galleons firing from the office windows of the buildings, creating a crossfire from opposite sides of the street. None of it seemed able to hit her, thanks to the erratic movements of the berserk scorpion she was riding, but she within seconds several Guardians were down.

"It might be time for a tactical retreat," Leviathan suggested. "There are other ways to reach the Tower, and they can't have Galleons hiding in the buildings along every route."

Aile was about to agree with her assessment when the scorpion was suddenly blown over by a series of explosions – missile impacts, she judged. They both flew through the air a short distance, then Aile leapt off before the mechaniloid crashed to the ground, squashing a few more Galleons under its bulk, then stopped moving. As she landed and spun to face the new wave of attackers she was hit by a withering hail of machine gun fire. Her armor absorbed most of it without complaint, but it kept her stationary long enough that the next round of missiles hit her dead-on. The missiles didn't hurt that much, but they knocked her through the air, and the collision with the side of a concrete building did.

As she pulled herself off the ground, her head ringing, she looked for what had fired at her. Three ships were hovering in the street, blocking their retreat, and were now raining death down on the Guardians from behind. Now that they were surrounded on all sides, Aile knew they wouldn't last much longer unless she could take some of them out. But she couldn't be everywhere at once...

The top floor of the building across the street suddenly exploded outward. A second later, the floor under that exploded too. Then the next, and the next, and so on, all the way down the building. Aile watched as glass, metal, Galleons, and assorted office furniture flew through the windows and fell several storeys into the street. Shortly after the explosions ended, the entire floors collapsed down on each other, like all the supports had been ripped out. In the space of a few moments the entire building turned into a useless piece of rock and concrete.

Just as she was wondering what had happened, she saw a red blur go flying off the top of the collapsing building towards the one she was currently standing beside. "I guess they don't call him the God of Destruction for nothing," Aile remarked.

"Less time gawking, more time killing airships," Leviathan replied.

Aile nodded and took off, leaving the building just as she heard the top floors begin to explode. She charged up and with a throw of her hand she fired one large ice dragon at the center of the three ships. All three fired a missile volley at the dragon obliterating it instantly into a cloud of ice and water vapor. Aile reformed the water into three smaller dragons and sent them back at the ships, firing them straight as an arrow towards the cockpits. The ships were unable to evade the secondary assault and were all lanced right through the middle, exploding to bits.

Just as things were starting to look better, another trio of airships flew down into the street. Up higher, a massive battleship cruised into view, an entire side of cannons pointed in Aile's general direction. They unloaded a full broadside of artillery fire at the same time the smaller ships began carpet-bombing the street with smaller but equally deadly plasma grenades.

Leviathan – and thus Aile – knew that ship artillery cannons, compared to conventional weapons, were quite inaccurate, largely due to their normal targets being ships, not people. Thus she knew that of the entire barrage, only a few shells would likely land anywhere near them, and any that did were just as likely to land in the midst of the Galleons and mavericks as they were among the Guardians. She was far more worried about airships – even if she took them out, they were just as likely to crash into the ground and detonate their entire payload at once. Destroying that many plasma grenades in such a small place would likely get them all killed anyway.

She had no real way of stopping the artillery, so she did the next best thing. She called up a surge of Leviathan's power and used it to create a massive ice wall, spanning the entire street from one side to the other. She finished just in time for the artillery to land. One shell disappeared into the scorpion-dug tunnel, sending tremors through the ground. The next hit the building to Aile's left, the first that Zero had destroyed. The next two hit the ice wall, shattering it to pieces, but keeping the Guardians under it safe from the initial blast. She felt the impact of three more from various directions, but they weren't anywhere in the current field of battle, and thus inconsequential.

_But what am I going to do about the bombers?_ There was no way she could make an ice wall thick enough to stop that many plasma grenades – they could just hover overhead and drop them until the wall broke.

Luckily, the simplest solution presented itself when a flurry of Buster shots flew out from the top of the building. Laden as they were, as soon as a shot connected with one ship, the exploding grenades made an explosion big enough to take out the two accompanying ships. A massive sonic boom shot through the street, knocking Guardians and Galleons alike to the ground from the force of several tonnes of explosives.

Aile was relatively undisturbed, which was why she ws the first to see more maverick troops coming at them down the street. "Is this ever going to end?" She asked rhetorically. "How many more mavericks can Thomas possibly have?"

"Well, it's possible Thomas was purposely withholding information from Model P," Leviathan mused aloud. "In that case, we really have no idea how many more of these there are. We need to start making progress against them, or we're going to end up getting slowly battered to death."

"Well I know Zero and I could make it to the Tower fine, it's bringing everyone else along for the ride that's the problem. We need to clear a path big enough that the mavericks can't immediately fill it when we're done."

"Agreed. Well, for starters, I'm detecting quite a buildup of water at the bottom of that tunnel. Why don't we crystallize some assistance?"

"Sounds like a good plan. Any suggestions?"

"No, but why not give it multiple heads? Three should do nicely."

Aile grinned. "I'll see what I can do." She turned to the Guardians behind her and yelled, "Everyone, move forward! To the tunnel!"

Aile and her trident carved a path through the remaining Galleons, with the Guardians providing her with support and cover fire – though she honestly didn't need them. The weapons the Galleons carried could barely even scratch her armor. As long as she protected her more lightly armored areas she was effectively invincible.

The stream of Galleons ended just as she reached the tunnel mouth, her troops a short ways behind her. She told her troops to hold their ground on the street and jumped into the tunnel just as the new enemy reinforcements got into range and started firing, pinning the Guardians down again.

The hole broke through the road and down into a subway tunnel, where the Galleons had likely been waiting in ambush. As she fell she saw several rows of broken pipes spewing water, and she landed with a splash in a relatively large puddle. Between that and the stuff still in the pipes, she had plenty to work with.

* * *

After blasting the bombers out of the sky, Zero figured Aile could hold her own for a moment, so he went to check up on the Guardians following along behind him. Unknown to Aile, they had smashed into the back of the maverick forces, which were now fighting on two fronts. It was a sizable force, but with the Guardians blocking them in on two sides and Zero ready to smash them all to pieces, it wouldn't be long before they could continue on to the Tower. That just left the airships as a continual thorn in the side, as it would probably be a long time before they ran out of smaller ships to send at them. One of the larger cruisers was also the most likely source of the communications blackout they were under. There was no question – if he and Aile could coordinate better, this fight would have already been over.

By the time he returned to where he'd left Aile, the battlefield had already changed dramatically. The Galleons had been wiped off the street and the Guardians had advanced to the edges of the gaping hole in the street. As more maverick reinforcements came down the streets, fleeing before Zero's troops, Aile was nowhere to been.

A low rumble came from the pit, the moments later a massive, shining, clawed, pure-white hand grasped the edge of the street. A second followed it shortly, followed by not one, but three massive dragon heads. The street cracked as the two hands pulled the beast's body, also solid ice, onto the street, revealing legs bigger than even the largest of pseudoroids.

Several mavericks changed targets, deciding that the dragon was more of a threat than the Guardians. Their rifles proved worthless, however, as the shots hit the massive ice body and fizzled – some special property imbued into the water by Leviathan, no doubt. The beast let out a mighty roar of defiance, shaking nearby buildings and shattering windows for blocks around. Zero managed to catch a glimpse of Aile, perched on the body between two of the heads, looking terribly proud of herself.

_I'd call it overkill, but I'm hardly one to talk._ Angered by the pin-prick fire of plasma rifles, the dragon turned one head to the nearest group of enemies and, accompanied by another mighty roar, let loose a blast of frozen air that covered an entire half of the street. The Galleons immediately froze solid and fell over, shattering on the ground, while a larger mechaniloid with two cannons for arms seemed to survive...until it fired one of it's cannons. Not built to withstand such cold temperatures, something inside the machine broke, and the arm cannons promptly exploded, rendering it useless.

One of the other heads was doing something similar to another pack of mavericks, while the center head lashed out and caught an airship in its mouth, crunching down on it like a bug. The mavericks returned fire with a fierce hail of plasma fire, but nothing seemed to faze the icebound beast.

Zero nimbly jumped across two rooftops then leapt onto the dragon's other shoulder, landing expertly on the icy surface. "Looks like you have things under control down here," he remarked casually.

"For the time being," Aile replied. "I can only regenerate this guy as long as we're near the water flowing into that tunnel. We need a way to make real progress through these guys, but there doesn't seem to be any end to them."

Zero nodded. "I can make a path to the Tower, but we need to get our communications back." He pointed skyward at the largest ship, which was now directly overhead. "I'm pretty sure that's the one jamming us. We need to take it out."

"Got any ideas?"

"One, but it might hurt a little."

* * *

On her mark, the giant ice dragon drew back its arm, then threw Aile and Zero as high as it could. It managed to get them a few hundred feet into the air, but that was only about halfway to the airship. Hopefully ti would be close enoug hfor part B of the plan to succeed.

"Good luck," Zero yelled as they reached the apex of their flight.

"Same to you," she replied, then formed a thick layer of ice under her feet. "Try and be gentle?"

"No promises." Zero pulled out his Recoil Rod and, with the full strength of the God of Destruction, released a blast into Aile's ice block.

The block shattered instantly as Zero was flung back to the ground, while Aile sailed even farther than the ice dragon could throw her. He flipped back around to land on his feet just as she cleared the top of the ship.

_Unorthodox, but it worked. I hope she's okay._

He turned his attention back to the battleground, as without Aile's backup, the giant ice dragon was quickly melting away under the plasma rifles and grenades of the mavericks. It was time for the God of Destruction to live up to his name.

* * *

**Author's Note  
**

Two and a half months for 8500 words. Not bad for me, I think. Consider it an early Christmas present. :)

As previously mentioned, now we're getting into some fun stuff that Aile and Leviathan can do with the biolink. Expect more game-breaking abilities to appear in the near future, I'm only getting started.

Trap Factory is the music when you fight Pandora and Prometheus in Megaman ZX. In ZXA it's Trap Phantasm, and on the Gigamix album it's Trap Fanatics. One or both of those names may appear before the end of the fic. I'm kind of running out of good chapter titles. :\ I'm contemplating breaking the pattern for next chapter, because Megaman 9's THUNDER TORNADO is just too apt a name for what's going to be happening. ;) (And yes, it has to be in all caps, it's just not the same otherwise.)

Speaking of the reploid siblings, this part was a little delayed due to a side project involving them. It takes place right before Return to Zero and explains some stuff that's going to happen towards the end, mostly with X and (SPOILER). Unfortunately I'm not sure I can post it due to the aforementioned spoilers...at least, not for a little while. On the bright side, it's already over half done, so hopefully when I finish RtZ I can just post the whole thing over a couple months. I'll be sure to write something in the notes of this fic pointing people towards it, since if you like Return to Zero, you should like it as well.

The rolling dragon thing is an actual legend, I just can't think of the name of it right now. I was reading about it when I wrote that part though. Soooo random.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time coming up with ideas for what's going to happen after Return to Zero is over. Pretty sure I'll be taking the Megaman universe to places nobody's thought of before. Should be pretty fun. I also keep coming up with cooler and cooler ideas for the big boss fight with Thomas, to the point where I'm afraid it's going to take longer than I want it to, since (believe it or not) I'm actually trying to wrap this up relatively quickly. I want to move on to bigger and better things. ;)

Anyhow, once again, thanks to all who keep reading, favoriting, and reviewing this thing. I swear I get a new favorite like, at last once a week. I have no idea how people keep findign this thing, but it always makes me smile. :)

Merry Christmas and what not, everyone. :)


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